ALVMNVS  BOOK  FYND 


RUSSIAN 
REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


RUSSIAN 
REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


BY 

ROBERT  CROZIER  LONG 

CORRESPONDENT  IN  RUSSIA,   IQI7,  OF  THE  ASSOCIATED  PRESS 
OF  AMERICA 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

68 1    FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright  1919 
By  E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


/r>n 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 


THE  aim  of  this  book  is  not  to  give  a  history  or 
interpretation  of  the  Revolution  in  Russia;  but  to 
record  in  narrative  form  the  more  striking  events  seen 
by  a  newspaper  correspondent  long  familiar  with  the 
country,  people  and  language.  Many  books  purport- 
ing to  give  a  rationale  or  interpretation  of  these  events 
have  already  appeared;  and  these  are  good  or  bad 
according  as  the  writers  were  equipped  with  a  qualify- 
ing knowledge  of  Russian  conditions.  As  far  as  I 
know,  I  was  the  only  foreigner  who  witnessed  some 
of  the  occurrences,  and  visited  some  of  the  places 
here  described;  and  the  amount  of  material  collected 
directly  and  therefore  not  to  be  omitted  was  so  great 
that  for  the  causes,  the  inner  course  and  the  future 
prospects  of  the  Revolution  there  has  been  little  space. 

Further,  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  treating  the 
Revolution  in  historical  perspective  and  analyzing  its 
finer  elements.  Russia  is  to-day  in  a  state  of  flux, 
probably  indeed  still  early  in  the  prolonged  process 
that  will  in  future  be  called  her  Revolution;  and  no 
final  judgment  upon  the  events  so  far  accomplished 
can  be  passed  until  the  lines  of  ultimate  progress  are 
more  clearly  revealed. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  LAST  ROMANOFF   ......        i 

II.  THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY       .       .       .      .  15 

III.  WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES       .       .       .       .  32 

IV.  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS    ....  49 
V.  PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  His  REFORMS     .       .       .  68  | 

VI.  WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      ....      87 

VII.  THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM        ....  103 

VIII.  BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION 119 

IX.  THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND   ....  141 

X.  KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE     .       .       .  159  \ 

XI.  KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW 178   * 

XII.  THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY    .       .       .       .193 

XIII.  KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION 207  t 

XIV.  TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR 228 

XV.  THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD    .       .       .       .250 

XVI.  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM  .       .       .       .265 

XVII.  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA 277 


vii 


RUSSIAN 
REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  LAST  ROMANOFF 

THREE  times  in  the  course  of  many  visits  to  Russia 
I  saw  Nicholas  II,  the  last,  least  considerable  and 
unluckiest  of  the  Romanoffs.  The  first  time,  he  was 
at  the  height  of  his  power;  the  second  time,  he  had 
just  unwillingly  surrendered  a  part  of  that  power; 
and  the  third  time,  he  was  returning  to  his  palace 
between  armed  guards,  a  captive  of  the  Revolution. 

The  first  time  was  for  an  instant  in  February,  1899. 
This  month  was  ominous  for  the  Tsar's  future.  In 
the  summer  before  he  had  sent  out  his  circular  sug- 
gesting a  Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague,  and  had 
convinced  the  less  skeptical  among  foreigners  of  his 
progressive  designs;  but  he  had  followed  this,  as  he 
had  preceded  it,  with  reactionary  measures  at  home; 
and  in  the  month  mentioned  had  provoked  a  revolt 
in  the  universities,  and  made  his  first  serious  assault 
upon  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Finland.  A  mere  look  at  the  Petrograd  streets  as  he 
passed  was  enough  to  convince  anyone,  even  if  new 


2  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

to  Russian  affairs,  that  his  subjects  did  not  share  the 
foreign  illusion.  Preceded  by  a  detachment  of  the 
palace  cavalry  known  as  "The  Convoy  of  His  Im- 
perial Majesty" — big,  black-bearded  men,  mostly 
Caucasus  Moslems — he  drove  in  a  sledge  into  the 
Nevsky  Prospect  on  his  way  to  the  Winter  Palace. 
The  streets  were  lined  with  soldiers.  The  civilian 
public  paid  no  attention  to  this  Imperial  progress. 
Hardly  a  man  turned  his  head.  But  there  were  other 
civilians  in  abundance  who  were  sharply  interested; 
and  after  a  month's  experience  of  Russia  it  was  as 
easy  to  distinguish  them  from  the  unofficial  public 
as  it  was  to  distinguish  the  Convoy  itself.  These  were 
the  detectives,  spies  and  agents  provocateurs  of  the 
Okhrana,  or,  as  it  was  officially  called,  the  Security 
Department  of  the  Police.  Nicholas  II  improved 
much  in  appearance  in  later  life.  He  was  then  ex- 
tremely thin,  unrepresentative  in  his  bearing  and 
servile  in  his  expression ;  and  his  pale  face  was  covered 
with  unsightly  spots.  The  total  impression  gained 
was:  a  frightened  monarch  and  his  guards.  Of  any 
organic  bond  between  him  and  his  Empire  and  his 
subjects;  of  any  of  the  traditional  associations  of 
Romanoff  greatness;  even  of  the  more  picturesque 
and  awe-inspiring  associations  of  Autocracy  there  was 
no  visible  trace. 

The  second  occasion  was  seven  years  later,  in  May, 
1906,  when  the  First  Duma  was  opened  in  the  Winter 
Palace.  This  was  after  the  debacle  of  the  Man- 
churian  War.  The  concession  of  a  Duma,  nominally 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  3 

with  a  final  word  in  legislation  but  without  influence 
upon  the  executive,  had  been  forced  out  of  the  Tsar 
by  the  General  Strike  of  October,  1905,  but  this  con- 
cession was  made  only  after  a  vain  attempt  to  satisfy 
the  people  with  a  consultative  Duma,  framed  by  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  Buluigin.  The  new  Duma 
was  the  work  of  Count  Sergius  Witte.  Russians 
knew  that  this  surrender  was  hateful  to  the  Court; 
and  if  any  doubted,  they  were  convinced  by  the  events 
of  the  next  years,  for  the  subsidence  of  the  revolu- 
tionary enthusiasm  made  it  possible  for  the  Tsar  and 
his  Prime  Minister  Stolypin  to  cancel  the  Duma's 
rights  one  by  one  until  only  a  shadow  remained. 

At  the  Winter  Palace,  Nicholas  II  played  his  en- 
forced role  with  dignity.  The  environment  was  dif- 
ficult, and  symbolical  of  an  opposition  of  moods  that 
continued  with  steady  aggravation  until  the  catas- 
trophe of  March,  1917.  The  old  Russia  and  the  new 
faced  one  another.  To  the  Tsar's  right,  stretching  all 
way  down  the  hall,  were  the  adherents  of  the  old 
regime,  courtiers,  ministers  and  ex-ministers,  bureau- 
crat members  of  the  till  then  nominated,  but  now 
to  be  half  elected,  Council  of  the  Empire,  all  in  Court 
uniforms;  and  with  them  ladies  of  the  Court  in  the 
vari-colored  costumes  of  the  old  Moscow  Tsardom 
with  high  beaded  headdress.  To  the  Tsar's  left,  fa- 
cing these  pillars  of  a  system  of  government  already 
undermined,  were  the  members  of  the  Duma,  gathered 
for  the  first  time.  The  physical  contrast  was  almost 
as  striking  as  the  moral.  A  few  members  from  the 


4  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

conservative  parties  came  in  evening  dress;  a  few 
more  in  morning  dress;  but  two  out  of  three  were 
plain,  disheveled  citizens  from  the  land  in  peasant 
armiaks,  or  in  red  blouses,  with  trousers  tucked  into 
high,  newly  oiled  boots,  the  smell  of  which  rilled  the 
hall.  These  two  factions  faced  one  another  across 
the  aisle,  the  courtiers  making  no  attempt  to  conceal 
their  discomfort  at  the  presence  of  men  some  of  whom 
had  been  serfs  of  their  fathers  or  even  of  themselves ; 
and  the  new  disheveled  Russia  of  the  Duma 
demonstratively  showing  its  animosity,  contempt  and 
vindictiveness. 

When  all  were  assembled,  the  Tsar  entered  the  hall ; 
read  the  document  convoking  the  new  legislature ;  and 
then  with  the  Dowager  Empress  on  his  right  arm,  and 
the  young  Empress  on  his  left,  walked  down  the  aisle 
between  the  old  Russia  and  the  new,  and  disappeared. 
He  read  in  a  slow  and  agreeable  voice,  that  had  no 
suggestion  of  Petrograd,  and  recalled  rather  a  Mos- 
cow droschky  driver's.  He  looked  well,  and  ex- 
tremely young;  was  self-possessed;  and  did  not  show 
the  chagrin  he  felt.  But  the  five  hundred  Duma  mem- 
bers were  in  no  mood  for  reconciliation.  They 
listened  glumly  and  dourly,  many  demonstratively 
turning  away  their  heads,  and  when  the  reading  ended 
they  remained  grimly  silent.  The  representatives  of 
old  Russia,  with  whom  cheering  is  not  etiquette,  also 
kept  silence  and  waited,  and  there  was  an  uncom- 
fortable pause.  At  last  the  courtiers  broke  into  a  loud 
cheer;  and  some  Duma  members — reactionaries  or 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  5 

conservatives — joined  them.  But  the  Duma  as  a 
whole  kept  to  the  silence  of  protest. 

No  ruler  was  ever  less  an  object  of  demonstrations 
— even  of  demonstrations  of  hatred — than  Nicholas 
II.  That,  too,  was  the  impression  gained  when  he 
came  to  Tsarskoe  Selo,  a  prisoner  on  the  2Oth  March, 
1917.  Two  days  earlier,  the  Provisional  Government 
of  Prince  George  Lvoff,  which  at  first  believed  that 
the  Tsar,  abandoned  by  his  nearest  adherents,  might 
be  left  in  ignominious  liberty,  gave  way  to  pressure 
from  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Deputies,  which  from  the  first  claimed  a 
condominium  in  political  affairs;  and  issued  a  decree 
with  the  curt  wording,  "Deprive  of  his  liberty  the 
former  Emperor."  When  this  decree  was  issued, 
four  members  of  the  Duma,  MM.  Bublikoff,  Gribunin, 
Vershinin  and  Kalinin  left  for  Moghileff,  the  army 
headquarters,  or  "Stavka,"  to  arrest  the  deposed  Tsar, 
transfer  him  into  the  custody  of  the  Revolution's 
troops  at  Tsarskoe  Selo,  and  so  bring  the  first  stage 
of  the  Revolution,  the  overthrowal  and  making  in- 
nocuous of  the  Romanoff  dynasty,  to  an  end. 

On  this  morning — just  arrived  from  Stockholm — 
I  witnessed  for  the  first  time  the  unexampled  reversal 
of  ranks  and  conditions  which  in  a  week's  time  the 
Revolution  had  brought  about  in  the  most  despotic 
and  class-crystallized  country  of  Europe.  In  front  of 
me,  in  a  first-class  compartment  of  the  Tsarskoe  Selo 
train,  sat  a  very  slovenly  private  soldier  side  by  side 
with  a  guards  officer  of  the  Pavlovsk  regiment — a 


6  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

regiment  known  as  "the  snub-noses"  because  the  mad 
Tsar  Paul  after  whom  it  was  named  had  a  defective 
nose.  The  officer  had  the  refined,  studious  and  some- 
what effeminate  features  that  one  sees  in  Russia's 
upper  class.  The  soldier  lolled  against  him  in  com- 
radely way,  and — sometimes  rubbing  the  window- 
pane  with  a  dirty  thumb,  sometimes  staring  at  a  news- 
paper which  he  probably  could  not  read — made  ribald 
remarks,  which  the  officer  answered  politely  and  with 
signs  of  fear.  When  the  officer  answered  in  French 
a  question  put  by  me,  the  soldier  threw  down  his  news- 
paper, and  said  to  him  impertinently,  "Speak  your 
own  language.  This  is  no  place  for  German  spies." 
And  he  listened  humbly  while  the  soldier  talked  about 
"the  dog  Tsar,"  "the  former  Tsaritsa,  Madame  Ras- 
putin," and  the  prospects  of  the  "new  order,"  an  ex- 
pression then  used  everywhere  to  comprehend  the 
political  and  social  changes  made  by  the  Revolution. 

A  week  before,  Tsarskoe  Selo  was  a  microcosm  of 
autocratic  Russia;  now  it  was  a  microcosm  of  the 
Revolution.  It  is  a  small  and  very  neat  wooden  town, 
with  a  great  many  outlying  palaces  and  summer  villas, 
and  level  roads  of  a  kind  seen  nowhere  else  in 
neglected  Russia.  Nicholas  II  had  made  it  his  chief 
place  of  abode  since  January,  1905,  when  shots  fired 
at  him  across  the  Neva  frightened  him  away  from  the 
Winter  Palace  in  Petrograd.  He  lived  not  in  the  old 
Grand  Alexandrovsk  Palace,  which  lies  near  the 
center  of  the  town  with  no  surrounding  park;  but  in 
the  more  easily  protected  New  Alexandrovsk  Palace, 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  .7 

a  large  yellow  Corinthian  building,  with  white  pillars 
and  capitals,  in  the  middle  of  a  vast  railed  park.  In 
the  old  days  this  palace  was  inaccessible.  Every- 
where about  were  palace  guards,  palace  policemen, 
soldiers  of  the  Asiatic  convoy,  town  police,  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Okhrana,  the  organization  whose  plots  and 
counter-plots,  equally  efficient  in  trapping  Socialist 
schoolgirls  and  murdering  Grand  Dukes,  dominated 
Russia's  underground  political  life.  All  these  had 
disappeared.  At  the  main  railroad  station  were 
crowds  of  untidy  revolutionary  soldiers,  all  with  red 
badges ;  the  commandant  of  the  station  was  a  corporal ; 
the  station  building  was  already  defiled  by  what  came 
to  be  known  as  "revolutionary  dirt";  and  the  portraits 
of  Nicholas  II  and  his  father  Alexander  III  lay  in 
tatters  in  a  rubbish  heap.  The  town  was  entirely 
under  the  control  of  a  Revolutionary  Committee 
which  sat  in  the  Rathaus  under  chairmanship  of  a 
colonel  named  Kobuilinsky,  who  with  his  officer 
assistants  shared  power  with  an  equal  number  of 
soldier  delegates.  The  soldiers  were  already  giving 
trouble.  In  a  room  below,  they  held  an  excited  meet- 
ing; and  sent  imperative  demands  to  the  Committees 
sitting  upstairs.  Some  wanted  to  take  immediate 
vengeance  upon  particular  friends  of  the  Tsar  who 
had  been  thrown  into  jail;  and  two  soldiers  actually 
rushed  out,  and  declared  they  would  execute 
vengeance  themselves. 

Next  to  the  Rathaus  is  the  large  building  of  the 
Nicholas  Lyceum;  and  here  many  Autocratists  were 


8  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

imprisoned.  In  one  room  on  the  first  floor  I  found 
seventy  persons,  mostly  in  civilian  dress,  with  a  few 
in  military  or  police  uniforms.  These  captives  were 
charged  with  being  spies  or  agents  provocateurs  of 
the  Tsardom.  They  were  in  an  indescribably  dirty, 
neglected  and  forlorn  condition,  and  had  no  beds, 
change  of  linen  or  food.  Some  lay  exhausted  in 
corners,  and  others  stood  or  crouched  because  there 
was  no  room  to  lie  down.  There  were  officers  in 
uniform  without  shoulder-straps,  badges,  or  swords, 
who  had  been  arrested  because  they  bore  German 
names,  and  were  accused — without  any  evidence — of 
forwarding  the  Tsaritsa's  treasonable  letters  to  Berlin. 
On  the  floor  above  was  a  room  equally  crowded;  and 
beside  it  in  a  separate  room  was  one  of  the  Revolu- 
tion's best  known  victims.  This  was  the  Tsar's 
secretary  Prince  Putiatin,  popularly  considered  one 
of  the  most  influential  and  vicious  courtiers.  When 
a  deputation  of  Zemstvo  leaders  under  M.  Schipoff 
visited  the  Tsar  in  1905  in  order  to  warn  him  of 
the  ruin  he  was  bringing  on  his  country,  they  found 
Putiatin  in  the  reception  room,  and  were  made  furious 
by  the  conduct  of  the  Tsar,  who  turned  to  his  favorite 
and  in  a  stage  whisper  asked  him  what  reply  he  should 
give.  Now  Putiatin  stood  in  a  showy  uniform  tunic, 
with  civilian  trousers  and  bedroom  slippers,  very  pale 
and  terrified,  trying  to  wash  his  hands  without  soap. 
Despite  his  plight,  he  retained  his  dignity;  paid  no 
attention  to  the  jeers  of  the  soldiers;  and  said  to  me 
in  French,  "If  you  will  excuse  me  I  prefer  not  to 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  9 

talk.  I  prefer  to  be  left  alone."  In  another  room 
I  found  four  prisoners  asleep,  and  a  fifth  dead,  with 
a  gash  in  his  forehead  and  blood  clots  in  his  hair. 
He  looked  like  a  university  student.  "He  was  killed," 
the  soldiers  explained,  "because  he  gave  insolent 
answers."  In  general,  Tsarskoe  Selo  had  seen  little 
bloodshed.  But  on  the  way  out  I  met  more  soldiers 
carrying  a  corpse;  and  to  the  reply  who  was  the 
victim,  got  the  indifferent  answer,  "We  do  not  know." 
The  arrival  of  the  Tsar  caused  not  the  least  interest 
to  Tsarskoe  Selo.  Hardly  a  soul  was  in  the  streets. 
The  corporal  commandant  of  the  railroad  declared 
that  the  prison-train  would  arrive  at  the  private 
station  of  the  New  Alexandrovsk  Palace.  The  road 
there  was  also  deserted.  The  local  civilian  population 
consisted  almost  exclusively  of  courtiers,  servants  and 
tradesmen  who  had  lived  on  the  Tsar's  bounty,  and 
who  might  be  considered  a  hereditary  Court  caste. 
But  these  did  not  show  even  curiosity.  A  few  soldiers 
of  the  "Convoy  of  His  Imperial  Majesty,"  who  had 
remained  tepidly  faithful,  though  not  faithful  enough 
to  fight,  peered  through  the  white  park  railing.  The 
only  preparations  for  reception  were  at  the  private 
railroad  station.  Here  there  were  five  companies  of 
the  Petrogradsky  Guards  Regiment,  which  like  all 
other  military  units  had  immediately  gone  over  to 
the  Revolution,  in  command  of  the  chief  of  the  Town 
Committee,  Kobuilinsky.  This  officer  remained  in 
authority  at  Tsarskoe  Selo  until  Nicholas  was  trans- 
ferred to  Siberia,  and  then  accompanied  him  there. 


10         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

At  the  station  was  a  much  more  notable  soldier,  a 
little,  dark  man  of  Japanese  type,  with  a  sparse  Tartar 
beard,  tight  yellow  skin,  and  oblique  dancing  eyes. 
This  was  General  Laurus  Korniloff,  the  new  Com- 
mandant of  the  Petrograd  Military  District,  a  position 
given  him  as  testimony  of  general  trust  in  his 
democratic  devotion  to  the  new  regime.  It  was 
Korniloff  who  in  the  following  months  so  firmly 
struggled  for  the  restoration  of  discipline  to  the  Army, 
who  planned  and  fought  the  only  victory  won  after 
the  Revolution,  who  as  Commander-in-Chief  rebelled 
against  Kerensky,  and  who  has  since  been  one  of  the 
mainstays  of  patriotic  opposition  to  the  Government 
of  the  Soviets. 

At  half  past  twelve,  the  Tsar's  train  of  ten  coaches 
steamed  into  Alexandrovsk  station.  It  was  the  famous 
Imperial  train;  and  it  was  the  last  time  it  conveyed 
Nicholas  II.  The  locomotive  stopped  near  the  middle 
of  the  platform,  and  half  of  the  train  remained  far 
out  of  the  station.  Nicholas  occupied  a  car  in  the 
middle,  immediately  ahead  of  the  car  carrying  the 
Duma  commissaries,  his  jailers.  First  out  of  his 
coach  stepped  a  very  tall  officer  in  Cossack  uniform, 
who  saluted;  and  immediately  afterwards  out  stepped 
the  deposed  Tsar;  and  replied  to  the  salute  of  the 
officers  on  the  platform  by  putting  his  hand  to  the  big 
black  busby  on  his  head.  He  wore  the  uniform  of 
the  Kuban  Cossacks,  a  feature  of  which  is  a  long 
lambskin  cloak,  and  one  order,  the  Cross  of  St. 
George.  He  walked  quickly  and  nimbly;  but  was  en- 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  11 

tirely  impassive;  spoke  a  few  words  to  Kobuilinsky; 
and  made  immediately  for  his  motor-car.  After  him 
went  his  adjutant  Prince  Dolgoroukoff,  the  only 
officer  of  high  rank  allowed  to  accompany  him.  Next 
appeared  the  four  Duma  members,  who  reported  to 
Kobuilinsky  "Our  mission  is  now  ended,"  meaning 
that  the  Tsar  was  henceforth  in  charge  of  the  military 
of  Tsarskoe  Selo.  With  dragoons  on  either  side  and 
an  infantry  guard  marching  slowly  behind,  the  Tsar's 
motor-car  entered  the  palace  drive,  and  disappeared 
behind  a  group  of  birches  near  the  west  wing.  After 
this  disappearance,  no  unofficial  person  caught  a 
glimpse  of  Nicholas  II  until  four  months  later  when 
he  was  led  through  the  streets  of  Tobolsk  in  western 
Siberia. 

Kobuilinsky  later  gave  me  details  of  the  Tsar's 
progress  towards  captivity.  He  had  received  the  four 
Duma  members  politely,  expressing  no  surprise  or 
anger  at  his  impending  arrest;  and  made  only  one 
request — that  his  friend  Admiral  Niloff,  then  at 
MoghilefT,  the  army  headquarters,  should  be  allowed 
to  accompany  him.  This  request  was  refused.  An 
hour  earlier,  Korniloff  had  gone  to  the  New 
Alexandrovsk  Palace  to  inform  the  Empress  of  the 
arrest  of  the  whole  Imperial  Family ;  and  she,  too  had 
received  the  news  calmly,  and  asked  only  that  her 
intimate  servants  should  not  be  sent  away,  and  that 
in  particular  she  should  be  allowed  to  keep  the  giant 
sailor  Derevenko,  "uncle,"  or  male  nurse,  of  the 
Tsarevitch  since  birth,  who  during  the  long  illness 


12         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

of  the  little  heir  had  carried  him  about  in  his  arms. 
Derevenko  was  one  of  the  best-known  Court  figures 
of  pre-revolutionary  Russia.  On  arrival  at  the 
Palace,  the  Tsar  was  met  by  Count  Benckendorff, 
Marshal  of  the  Court,  who  was  also  a  prisoner;  but 
no  member  of  his  family  had  come  downstairs  to 
greet  him.  Four  of  the  children  were  down  with 
measles,  one,  the  Grand  Duchess  Tatiana,  dangerously 
ill;  and  some  days  before  a  panic  had  reigned  among 
the  several  hundred  inmates  of  the  Palace  owing  to 
rumor  that  revolutionary  soldiers  were  marching  from 
Petrograd  with  the  avowed  design  of  exterminating 
the  whole  Romanoff  brood.  In  fact,  no  such  attempt 
was  made. 

I  paid  several  visits  to  Tsarskoe  Selo  after  this. 
Kobuilinsky  remained  in  command  of  the  revolu- 
tionary troops;  but  the  Tsar's  immediate  jailer  was 
a  certain  Staff-Captain  Kotzebue,  a  well-mannered 
and  smart  officer  who  spoke  French  and  English. 
Kotzebue  was  in  complete  control  of  the  Palace,  and 
was  already  at  work  reorganizing  the  administration 
and  stopping  waste,  an  instance  of  which,  he  said,  was 
the  fact  that  sixty  yardmen  had  no  other  work  than 
carrying  firewood  to  the  rooms.  The  Tsar  was 
guarded  by  three  different  units.  The  first  guard  was 
inside  the  Palace,  a  member  being  stationed  in  the 
Tsar's  study  by  day,  and  at  night  outside  his  bed- 
room. In  this  guard  were  delegates  from  the  revolu- 
tionary regiments  at  Petrograd,  whom  agitators  had 
already  taught  to  distrust  the  "bourgeois"  Govern- 


THE  LAST  ROMANOFF  13 

ment  of  Prince  Lvoff.  These  resented  any  indulgence 
shown  to  the  prisoner,  and  believed  in  the  danger  of 
his  escape.  A  second  guard  was  stationed  in  the 
garden  between  the  two  palace  wings,  in  which 
Nicholas  exercised;  and  the  third  consisted  of  a  line 
of  sentries  posted  outside  the  park  gates. 

Only  in  the  garden  mentioned  was  the  Tsar  allowed 
to  exercise.  He  never  entered  the  park.  When  tired 
of  trudging  through  the  deep  snow,  he  usually  sent 
for  a  shovel,  and,  sometimes  helped  by  his  fellow- 
prisoner  Benckendorff,  cleared  paths  through  the 
snow.  During  these  exercise  hours  he  was  forbidden 
to  speak  any  language  except  Russian.  Kotzebue  was 
always  present;  and  the  Tsar  had  further  to  see  him 
three  times  a  day.  He  was  not  allowed  to  use  the 
telegraph  or  telephone;  and  received  no  communica- 
tions from  outside  that  had  not  passed  through  the 
censor's  hands.  His  letters  were  tested  for  invisible 
ink.  On  the  first  day  was  improvised  a  rough  and 
ready  system  of  examining  food  sent  into  the  palace, 
and  all  things  sent  out;  and  later  this  examination 
became  very  strict. 

The  Tsar  was  treated  as  an  imprisoned  army  officer, 
and  was  addressed  as  polkovnik,  or  colonel;  and 
always  wore  a  colonel's  uniform  without  decorations 
or  sword.  His  jailer  Kotzebue  spoke  of  him  politely 
as  "the  ex-Emperor,"  but  to  the  soldiers  he  was 
"Nikolai  Romanoff,"  and  sometimes  even  "little 
Nikolai."  The  courtly  manners  of  Kotzebue  were  a 
source  of  much  comment  and  of  resentment  by  the 


14         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

soldiers.  He  proved,  in  fact,  too  courtly.  About  three 
weeks  after  he  was  appointed  jailer,  newspapers  re- 
ported that  he  had  been  detected  carrying  communica- 
tions from  the  Empress  to  her  friends  outside,  and 
had  been  put  under  arrest.  The  Revolution  was  be- 
ginning to  show  its  uglier  side;  and  the  Palace  Com- 
mandant, already  somewhat  disillusioned,  had  fallen 
under  the  charm  of  the  Empress,  and  for  no  corrupt 
motive  had  gone  over  to  her  cause.  This  incident 
created  a  panic ;  and  the  regimen  at  the  Palace  became 
severer.  When  the  soldiers  heard  that  the  ex-Tsar 
was  allowed  wine  with  his  dinner,  they  entered  the 
Palace  cellars  and  smashed  several  thousands  of  bot- 
tles. Later  appeared  an  official  report  that  a  non- 
commissioned officer  had  been  dismissed  after  being 
caught  kissing  the  hand  of  the  Grand  Duchess 
Tatiana;  and  this  trivial  incident  led  to  fresh 
severities.  Kobuilinsky  assured  me  that  the  Tsar  met 
these  trials  with  dignity.  He  ascribed  this,  however, 
not  to  magnanimity  but  to  an  abnormal  insensibility 
to  events.  The  Tsar  felt  nothing ;  he  was  neither  kind 
nor  cruel;  merry  nor  morose;  he  had  no  more 
sensibility  than  some  of  the  lowest  forms  of  life.  "A 
human  oyster"  was  the  summing  up  of  this  officer, 
who  saw  him  nearly  every  day  for  months.  The 
monarch,  who  had  continued  playing  tennis  when  told 
of  the  destruction  of  his  fleet  at  Tshushima,  later 
heard  of  his  army's  disasters  in  Poland,  of  his  loss  of 
the  Throne,  of  the  last  indignities  and  petty  persecu- 
tions, in  the  same  imperturbable  way. 


CHAPTER  II 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY" 


OF  all  attempts  to  express  in  a  phrase  the  manifold 
and  complex  causes  which  led  to  the  fall  of  the 
Romanoff  dynasty,  the  most  truthful  and  striking  is 
that  of  the  late  M.  Shingarieff,  a  Cadet  Duma  mem- 
ber and  economic  expert  who  perished  at  the  hands 
of  soldiers  immediately  after  the  Bolshevik  Revolu- 
tion. "Dying  from  auto-intoxication,"  said  Shin- 
garieff to  the  Duma.  "From  the  poison  produced  by 
Autocracy  itself."  Nicholas  II,  his  predecessors,  his 
bureaucrats  and  his  courtiers  had  themselves  produced 
the  solvents  of  disintegration.  It  was  not  so  much 
the  oppressiveness  of  their  measures  for  state  and 
personal  security  as  the  inherent  rottenness  and  self- 
destructive  character  of  these  measures  which  caused 
the  universal  collapse. 

The  deadliest  of  these  poisons  was  the  political 
police  system.  A  great  deal  has  been  written  of  the 
past  history  of  this  system,  from  the  bloodthirsty 
opritchina  of  the  old  Moscow  Tsars,  via  the  "Third 
Division"  of  the  later  Romanoffs,  down  to  Okhrana 
of  latest  years.  The  Okhrana,  officially  the  "Security 
Department,"  permeated  all  public  and  private  life. 

is 


16         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

The  main  features  of  its  operations  were  kept  fairly 
secret  before  the  Revolution  of  1905,  but  thereafter 
they  became  public  through  repeated  exposures  in  the 
Duma,  based  largely  upon  the  confessions  of  security 
agents  and  the  revelations  of  Vladimir  Burtseff.  The 
Okhrana,  these  revelations  showed,  was  not  an  in- 
strument of  Government,  not  a  means,  but  an  end  in 
itself.  Not  content  with  espionage  and  treason, 
obvious  and  inevitable  expedients  against  revolu- 
tionary plotting  and  a  by  no  means  scrupulous  Terror, 
not  content  even  with  the  ordinary  devices  of  the 
agent  provocateur,  it  resorted  to  the  wholesale 
organization  of  the  very  political  crimes  which  it  was 
expected  to  combat.  No  Terrorist  assassination  of 
importance,  no  revolutionary  manifestation  took 
place  without  the  prior  knowledge,  help  or  even 
organization  ab  initio  of  the  political  police.  The 
grandest  type  of  okhrannik  was  Yevno  Azeff  who, 
as  Burtseff  said,  "had  one  murder  for  every  year 
of  his  life."  Azeff,  always  a  regularly-paid  Security 
Department  official,  plotted  everywhere,  at  home  and 
abroad;  he  flourished  in  France,  was  defended  in  the 
Duma  by  the  former  Premier  Stolypin,  fooled  a 
genuine  revolutionary  committee  which  inquired  into 
his  deeds  when  suspicion  fell  upon  him,  escaped  many 
attempts  at  revolutionary  vengeance,  and  is  to-day  in 
safety  in  Berlin.  The  murders  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Sergius  and  of  the  reactionary  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior Plehve  were  both  deeds  of  Azeff.  Although 
Azeff  was  an  exception  by  the  vastness  of  his  opera- 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"  17 

tions,  he  was  in  other  respects  only  a  typical  agent 
of  the  police  system  which  after  the  complete  aliena- 
tion of  the  people  was  the  only  bulwark  left  to  the 
Autocracy.  The  whole  Okhrana  was  an  organization 
of  criminals.  When  Terrorism  was  rampant,  a 
genuine  zeal  was  sometimes  shown  in  putting  it  down ; 
when  Terrorism  declined  or  was  suppressed,  it  was 
systematically  revived;  and  thereby  the  Okhrana 
justified  its  continued  existence.  Thus  Autocracy  was 
attacked  by  itself.  The  Okhrana  was  further  active 
in  the  anti-Jewish,  anti-Liberal,  and  mystical-re- 
actionary propaganda ;  and  it  was  practically  an  affilia- 
tion of  the  looser-organized  Rasputinism,  the  infamies 
of  which  dealt  a  last  blow  to  the  Autocracy,  and  imme- 
diately precipitated  the  Tsar's  fall. 

Complete  revelations  as  to  the  activities  of  the 
Security  Department  were  furnished  only  after  the 
Revolution.  The  Okhrana  building  was  burnt  down 
in  the  first  revolutionary  days;  and  the  Chief  of 
Police,  Bieletsky,  was  thrown  into  the  Peter  and  Paul 
Fortress  where  I  found  him  six  months  later.  My 
first  sight  of  the  building  was  a  pile  of  blackened, 
shattered  walls,  outside  of  which  was  a  crowd  of 
men  and  women,  all  with  red  badges,  some  of  whom 
sang  emotionally  the  Marseillaise,  while  others  were 
busy  picking  charred  papers  out  of  a  pile.  From  the 
viewpoint  of  history  this  pile  of  papers  was  one  of 
the  most  precious  relics  of  the  vanished  regime.  It 
was  the  archives  of  the  Okhrana's  head  office,  with 
details  of  the  organization  of  the  whole  state  spy  and 


18         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

murder  system,  and  lists  of  many  thousands  of  per- 
sons, policemen,  gendarmes,  and  ostensibly  private 
individuals,  men  and  women,  employed  in  the  vast 
work  of  provocation,  treason  and  blood.  Just  such 
a  scene  had  been  witnessed  at  Yildiz  Kiosk  in  Con- 
stantinople nine  years  before  when  the  triumphant 
Young  Turks  seized  the  spy  d journals  of  Abdul 
Hamid.  The  Russian  and  Turkish  systems  differed 
only  in  the  amount  of  money  spent  and  of  blood  taken 
in  exchange. 

In  the  first  revolutionary  days  many  agents  of  the 
Security  Department  were  thrown  into  jail,  and 
some  were  killed.  By  a  mistaken  policy  those  who 
were  spared  were  sent  to  the  front  to  redeem  their 
crimes  by  fighting;  and  these,  true  to  their  traditions, 
played  a  conscious  role  in  demoralizing  the  Army. 
In  July  I  was  assured  by  the  Premier,  Prince  Lvoff, 
that  this  was  the  main  cause  of  the  Galician  rout. 
Before  that  the  public  learned  more  of  the  Okhrana 
record.  The  charred  archives  of  Petrograd  and  the 
records  of  Okhrana  departments  in  other  cities,  re- 
vealed that  thousands  of  respected  citizens  who  took 
no  visible  interest  in  politics  or  who  even  professed 
to  be  enthusiasts  for  reform  or  revolution  were  in 
government  pay.  In  the  middle-sized  town  of 
Kharkoff  alone  were  three  hundred  private  spies. 
Every  political  association  had  spies  among  its  mem- 
bers. There  were  spies  in  factories  and  workshops, 
in  literary  and  scientifical  associations,  and  even  in 
the  self-governing  institutions  of  town  and  country. 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"          19 

The  Autocracy  dreaded  the  Press,  so  naturally  news- 
papers were  infested  with  spies,  who  reported  to  head- 
quarters tendencies  in  the  editorial  staffs,  the  author- 
ship of  anti-governmental  articles;  and  who,  in  the 
true  Okhrana  spirit,  used  their  influence  to  give 
moderately  conducted  Liberal  papers  a  revolutionary 
color  in  order  to  provide  excuses  for  repression. 

For  many  months  after  the  Revolution,  a  Special 
Commission  issued  periodical  reports  containing  lists 
of  names  and  facts  about  Okhrana  organization.  The 
lists  showed  that  every  secret  police  agent  had  at  least 
two  names,  sometimes  three.  He  had  his  real  name, 
the  name  under  which  he  passed  among  the  public, 
and  his  nickname.  His  real  name  might  be  Ivanoff 
or  Semenoff ;  but  he  was  officially  known  as  "Dumpy," 
"Drunkard,"  "Frenchy,"  "Lively,"  and  something 
else  meant  to  describe  physical  or  moral  character- 
istics. Among  the  spies  were  men  of  all  classes — 
peasants,  working  men,  small  traders,  merchants, 
professors,  writers,  lawyers  and  doctors.  In  July  a 
terrific  scandal  was  caused  by  the  revelation  that  a 
rich  citizen  and  prominent  philanthropist  of  South 
Russia,  was  a  police  agent;  and  that  he  had  reported 
monthly  the  political  activities  of  prominent  men.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  total  sum  spent  upon  the 
spy  department  was  great,  the  spies  were  not  well 
paid.  The  Okhr ana's  accounts  show  that  the  wage 
of  nine-tenths  of  the  spies  was  under  $20  a  month. 
For  this  pittance  thousands  of  men  and  women  prac- 
tised the  worst  forms  of  treason,  including  the 


20         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

organization  of  murder,  with  the  aim  of  sending  their 
fellow-citizens  to  the  gallows.  The  Okhrana  treated 
its  agents  with  distrust.  It  entered  in  its  lists  com- 
plete descriptions  of  the  mental  and  moral  characteris- 
tics of  every  spy  in  its  employment.  There  was  a 
biography,  followed  by  a  short  characteristic  of  the 
spy's  work  and  conduct,  which  in  many  cases  stated 
that  he  ought  not  to  be  trusted,  and  needed  watching. 

This  was  the  natural  result  of  the  system  of  intrigue 
and  deceit  which  the  Okhrana  practised.  The  police 
were  deceived  by  their  chosen  deceivers.  Men  whom 
they  absolutely  relied  upon,  who  were  ostensibly  giv- 
ing reports  of  the  conduct  of  political  agitators,  were 
in  reality  the  Government's  worst  enemies,  and  were 
supplying  reports  merely  in  order  to  deceive  it,  while 
at  the  same  time  carrying  on  genuine  revolutionary 
or  even  Terrorist  activity.  Such  a  fraudulent  spy  was 
Poliakoff  of  Warsaw.  Poliakoff  was  a  member  of 
numerous  Russian  and  Polish  Socialistic  and  revolu- 
tionary organizations;  and  he  seemed  to  prove  his 
genuineness  by  betraying  his  comrades.  But  corre- 
spondence was  discovered  showing  that  he  had  done 
his  acts  of  treason  merely  in  order  to  lull  the  police 
into  security;  by  sacrificing  a  few  of  his  comrades 
he  had  helped  the  Terrorist  activity  of  others;  and 
he  had  been  a  partner  to  over  twenty  plots  for 
assassinations.  As  a  result  of  such  revelations,  the 
Okhrana  watched  sharply  its  employees,  but  in  spite 
of  this  it  was  continually  being  tricked. 

Women  spies  were  liberally  employed.    Particularly 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"  21 

was  this  so  abroad,  from  where  many  supposed 
revolutionary  women  students  sent  monthly  reports 
to  the  police,  and  kept  them  informed  of  the  move- 
ments of  Terrorists.  The  Commission  found  a  report 
about  a  certain  Olga  Desiatsky,  against  whose  name 
appeared  the  entry  "age  eighteen,  is  a  woman  of 
remarkable  beauty  and  talent,  which  has  enabled  her 
to  render  very  great  services.  May  be  implicitly  re- 
lied upon."  The  girl  Desiatsky  pursued  her  trade 
with  extraordinary  success  until  she  made  a  false  step, 
and  then  she  perished.  She  was  captured  at  Dvinsk 
by  Terrorists;  given  the  choice  of  taking  poison  or 
being  killed;  and  on  her  refusal  to  take  the  poison 
was  executed  in  a  barbarous  way.  The  Terrorists 
gagged  her,  bound  her  hands,  and  hanged  her  by  driv- 
ing through  her  chin  a  sharp  hook  used  for  impaling 
carcasses  of  pigs  and  suspending  her  alive  from  the 
rafter  of  a  cabin. 

From  a  psychological  point  of  view,  a  more  remark- 
able Okhrama  story  was  that  of  an  attractive  woman 
of  twenty-seven,  who  out  of  genuine  affection  for 
the  Autocracy  pursued  the  work  of  spy  in  Switzer- 
land, Germany  and  Austria.  This  woman  refused 
to  accept  money — she  rendered  enormous  services  to 
the  police,  but  demanded  no  return  except  that  her 
five-year-old  son  should  be  cared  for  if  she  fell  a 
victim  to  Terrorist  vengeance.  Her  letters  to  the 
police  were  an  extraordinary  mixture  of  bloodthirsty 
cruelty — she  betrayed  without  a  qualm  dozens  of  men 
and  women — and  maternal  affection.  They  refer  to 


22         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

her  son  as  "my  adored  little  Alexis"  and  enlarge  with 
passion  upon  his  beauty  and  his  progress  in  study  and 
play.  This  woman,  whom  the  Okhrana  report 
described  as  the  best  of  all  spies  ever  employed  abroad, 
disappeared  mysteriously,  and  her  "adorable  little 
son"  was  deposited  at  the  head  office  of  the  Okhrana 
with  a  card  announcing  who  he  was.  The  Minister 
of  the  Interior  ordered  that  the  boy  be  provided  for; 
but  the  greatest  of  women  spies  was  never  heard  of 
again. 

The  Okhrana  had  local  departments  at  Moscow,  at 
Kharkoff,  at  Odessa  and  in  Siberia  and  Central  Asia; 
also  at  Warsaw.  All  these  departments  were  cor- 
ruptly administered,  they  quarreled  fiercely,  and  com- 
peted with  one  another  in  order  to  gain  special  credit, 
which  meant  special  money,  from  the  Ministry  of  the 
Interior.  They  even  went  so  far  as  to  foil  one  an- 
other's plots  and  counter-plots.  The  chief  of  the 
Kharkoff  Okhrana,  a  retired  gendarme  officer,  when 
transferred  to  a  subordinate  position  in  Petrograd  as 
result  of  his  embezzlements,  did  everything  to  spoil 
the  plans  of  his  former  colleagues.  When  the 
Kharkoff  reports  came  into  his  hands,  he  abstracted 
and  destroyed  some,  with  the  result  that  several 
political  plots  were  never  revealed  to  the  head  authori- 
ties. He  later  sent  an  agent  to  Kharkoff  to  get  up 
a  fake  plot  under  conditions  which  prevented  the  local 
spy  office  from  discovering  it.  The  plot  was  a  sham ; 
but  owing  to  the  intrusion  of  genuine  Terrorists,  it 
ended  in  an  actual  assassination.  For  their  failure  the 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"          23 

local  secret  agents  were  reprimanded  and  reduced  in 
rank;  and  the  dishonest  colleague  got  his  revenge. 

In  its  range  Nicholas  IFs  spy  organization  was 
truly  oriental.  Nobody  was  exempt.  Just  as  the 
Turkish  Sultans  spied  upon  their  brothers  and  cousins, 
regarding  them  as  their  worst  enemies,  so  the 
Romanoff  Tsars  spied  upon  their  kinsmen,  Grand 
Dukes,  courtiers  and  ministers.  Small  spies  spied  on 
great  spies.  The  notorious  Ratchkovsky,  once  head 
of  the  secret  police  in  Paris  and  an  industrious 
organizer  of  Terrorist  plots  abroad,  complained  that 
the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  had  set  special  agents  to 
watch  his  movements.  When  the  Tsar  in  a  fit  of 
panic  appointed  a  reforming  Minister  of  the  Interior 
(the  late  Prince  Sviatopolk-Mirsky)  the  adherents  of 
a  former  reactionary  minister  formed  a  little  council 
of  spies  to  watch  the  new  minister,  and  collect  material 
for  the  accusation  that  he  was  in  touch  with  reformers. 
The  Tsar's  uncle,  the  Grand  Duke  Paul,  declared  that 
he  himself  was  spied  on  after  the  murder  of  the 
notorious  Rasputin.  The  Grand  Duke's  son  Dmitri 
was  associated  in  this  murder  with  the  Tsar's  relative 
by  marriage  Prince  Yousoupoff,  though  he  denied  that 
he  himself  fired  the  shot.  When  the  Grand  Duke 
Paul,  in  a  dramatic  meeting  at  Tsarskoe  Selo,  warned 
the  Tsar  of  the  impending  revolution,  Nicholas 
listened  silently  and  made  no  objections;  but  from 
that  day  on  until  the  Revolution  the  Grand  Duke's 
villa  was  watched  by  Okhrana  agents.  The  Grand 
Duke  Michael,  the  historian,  who  was  many  years 


24         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

ago  exiled  to  the  Caucasus  for  supposed  Liberal  lean- 
ings, was  surrounded  by  spies,  who  reported  on  his 
most  innocent  movements.  As  many  as  five  hundred 
words  were  devoted  to  describing  how  after  break- 
fast he  went  for  a  walk;  how  he  spoke  to  a  moun- 
taineer on  the  road;  and  how  he  carried  on  with 
Petrograd  "a  correspondence  which  is  supposed  to  be 
with  his  tailor,  but  which  certainly  ought  to  be 
watched."  The  Grand  Duke's  letters  were  regularly 
opened;  his  servants  were  bribed;  and  periodical  re- 
ports upon  his  opinions,  almost  entirely  fabrications, 
were  presented  to  Nicholas  II  himself. 

Before  the  Revolution,  foreigners  were  told — out 
of  a  servile  sense  of  propriety  towards  royalty — that 
the  Tsar  was  merely  a  passive  agent  in  the  hands  of 
his  police,  and  that  he  had  no  idea  of  what  was  going 
on.  Discoveries  made  after  the  Revolution  prove 
this  to  have  been  untrue.  The  Tsar  did  not  go  so 
far  as  Abdul  Hamid,  who  examined  his  djournals 
every  day,  and  was  his  own  Okhrana;  but  he  was  well 
aware  of  the  crimes  of  the  Security  Department.  This 
was  proved  by  the  discovery  at  Tsarskoe  Selo  of 
reports  giving  childish  information  about  the  move- 
ments of  suspected  Liberals.  One  document  un- 
earthed was  an  appeal  to  the  Tsar  from  the  Ministry 
of  the  Interior  to  sanction  the  pension  claimed  by  a 
superannuated  spy,  who  had  rendered  enormous 
services  (as  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  had 
brought  several  persons  to  the  gallows).  On  this  re- 
port Nicholas  had  written  in  his  own  handwriting, 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"          25 

"I  entirely  approve."  The  fact  is,  the  Tsar  was  as 
well  informed  about  the  general  principles  of  the 
Security  Department's  campaign  of  assassination  as 
he  was  of  the  parallel  assassination  campaign  of  the 
Black  Hundreds,  for  which  he  repeatedly  showed 
approval  by  words  and  deeds.  The  Duma  debates 
were  no  secret.  Both  assassination  campaigns  were 
logical  outcomes  of  the  doctrine  of  Tsarkoe  Selo  that 
nothing  mattered  save  the  comfort  and  security  of  the 
reigning  House. 

The  measures  taken  for  the  Tsar's  immediate  com- 
fort and  security  were  not  the  work  of  the  Okhrana, 
except  when  the  Imperial  Family  was  traveling,  but 
of  an  independent  organization,  the  palace  police.  Of 
these  I  saw  something  during  a  second  visit  paid  to 
Tsarskoe  Selo  three  days  after  the  Tsar's  return  in 
captivity.  The  Tsaritsa,  according  to  Petrograd  re- 
port, had  been  caught  smuggling  out  letters  by  an 
underground  gallery;  and  a  new,  more  severe  Palace 
Commandant  had  been  appointed.  To  investigate 
these  stories,  and  partly  with  the  object  of  visiting 
Rasputin's  grave,  I  returned  to  Tsarskoe  Selo  in  com- 
pany of  a  member  of  the  British  Legation  at  Stock- 
holm. Tsarskoe  Selo  had  settled  down,  and  was 
deader  even  than  on  the  day  of  the  Tsar's  arrival ;  and 
as  the  headquarters  of  the  Revolutionary  Committee 
was  vacant  we  decided  to  visit  first  the  grave.  The 
palace  park  was  vacant.  Across  the  deep  snow,  be- 
hind the  weedy  birches  and  willows,  rose  the  vast 
yellow  and  white  Corinthian  building  which  was  now 


26         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

a  prison;  but  though  this  was  Nicholas'  exercise  hour 
nothing  of  him  or  his  watchers  appeared  in  the 
garden;  and  outside,  as  on  the  day  of  arrival,  were 
only  uncouth  sentries  with  fixed  bayonets,  in  shaggy 
sheepskin  coats. 

Rasputin's  grave  lies  far  from  Tsarskoe  Selo  town, 
just  outside  the  park,  and  not  far  from  the  Tsar's 
private  railroad  station.  My  companion  and  I  trudged 
through  the  deep  snow,  being  stopped  once  by  soldiers 
at  the  "kitchen  entrance,"  the  only  one  of  several 
entrances  open,  which  was  now  headquarters  of  the 
palace  revolutionary  guard.  Further  on  we  were 
again  stopped,  this  time  at  the  unpicturesque  red 
buildings  known  as  "the  Tsar's  model  farm."  On 
the  ground  that  our  passports  did  not  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  Provisional  Government — a  stamp  which  in 
fact  did  not  exist — the  sentries  put  us  politely  under 
arrest ;  and  told  us  that  we  must  see  the  Commandant, 
who  I  believed  was  the  Colonel  Kobuilinsky  who  was 
in  charge  of  the  town.  Instead,  we  were  brought 
back  to  the  "kitchen  entrance"  and  from  there  into  or 
rather  underneath  the  palace. 

The  early  imprisonment  of  the  Tsar,  like  his  later 
treatment  and  death,  and  indeed  like  his  personality, 
was  entirely  without  dignity  or  romance.  Nothing 
of  tragedy  was  to  be  seen,  but  only  a  good  dose  of 
truly  Russian  indifference,  negligence  and  levity. 
This  was  the  note  struck  by  Tsarskoe  Selo  palace. 
After  passing  through  the  main  gateway  of  the 
"kitchen  entrance"  we  entered  a  small,  untidy  court- 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"          27 

yard  with  walls  very  badly  painted,  innumerable 
pigeons  and  high  heaps  of  firewood.  After  the  sentry 
was  told  who  we  were,  we  passed  into  a  second  court- 
yard, also  crowded  with  pigeons  and  littered  with  fire- 
wood; and  from  there  we  went  into  a  dark  hall  in 
which  were  a  dozen  lounging  soldiers  of  a  Tirailleur 
regiment  under  a  very  untidy  non-commissioned 
officer,  who  was  scribbling  in  the  light  of  a  red  ikon 
lamp.  On  both  sides  of  the  hall  rise  short  flights 
of  steps  joined  by  a  gallery  at  the  top.  Here  we  had 
fresh  proof  of  the  indifference  with  which  the 
Romanoff's  connections  regarded  their  fall.  Leaning 
over  the  rail,  and  joking  with  the  slovenly  revolu- 
tionary soldiers  underneath  were  half  a  dozen  foot- 
men in  the  handsome  blue  uniforms  with  black-eagled 
gold  braid  lapels  worn  by  the  lackeys  of  the  Court. 
The  subject  of  wit  was  "the  little  man" — the  deposed 
Tsar.  Behind  the  laughing  servants,  between  the  tops 
of  two  side  staircases,  we  saw  a  dim  tunnel  apparently 
the  beginning  of  a  gallery  running  parallel  to  the 
palace  front  in  the  direction  of  the  left  wing  where 
the  Tsar  was  imprisoned.  The  non-commissioned 
officer  under  the  red  lamp  telephoned  to  somewhere 
reporting  the  arrival  of  "two  French  gentlemen"  who 
had  been  asking  indiscreet  questions  about  the  Tsar; 
and  a  moment  later  we  were  inside  the  gallery  on 
the  way  to  the  officer  of  the  day. 

Much  sensationalism  has  been  written  of  the 
physical  precautions  taken  to  guard  Romanoff  Tsars. 
I  believe  that  my  companion  and  I  are  the  only  out- 


28         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

siders  who  ever  had  even  an  incomplete  glimpse  of 
these  precautions.  The  Tsarskoe  Selo  gallery,  prob- 
ably originally  built  for  the  sake  of  dryness,  is  part 
of  the  system.  It  is  about  eight  feet  high,  is  painted 
a  dull  gray  color,  and  is  lighted  at  the  beginning  from 
skylights,  and  farther  on  where  it  runs  under  the 
palace  proper  (the  "kitchen  entrance"  is  a  detached 
complex  of  buildings)  by  electricity.  About  every 
dozen  yards  it  is  intersected  by  transverse  galleries 
of  the  same  kind.  Before  we  turned  down  one  of 
these  galleries  to  the  room  of  the  officer  of  the  day 
we  passed  four  or  five  transverse  galleries.  Along 
the  walls  of  all  run  wires  and  pipes,  some  of  which 
are  probably  for  electricity  and  water;  but  there  are 
too  many  for  such  uses.  Below  the  wires  is  a  con- 
tinuous box  of  brown  wood,  with  little  glass  windows 
showing  brass  knobs  every  dozen  feet.  There  are 
a  few  doors,  some  bound  with  iron,  all  closed,  and 
all  with  the  exception  of  two,  which  are  not  iron- 
bound,  without  any  inscription.  One  of  these  two 
is  marked  "The  Servants  of  the  Most  August 
Children,"  and  the  other  "Guard  of  the  Day."  On 
most  of  the  doors  are  boxes  which  look  as  if  they 
contained  telephone  apparatus.  As  there  could  be  no 
use  for  so  many  telephones,  I  asked  one  of  our 
soldiers  whether  these  boxes  were  part  of  the  security 
mechanism,  and  got  the  answer  "Exactly  so !"  but  the 
soldier's  tone  implied  that  he  knew  nothing.  Later 
I  learned  that  the  continuous  box,  some  of  the  wires 
and  all  the  telephone-like  apparatus  were  indeed  links 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"  29 

in  the  system  of  protection.  Exactly  how  they  were 
used  I  never  found  out ;  but  an  officer  assured  me  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  apparatus  had  been  set  up 
merely  in  order  to  impress  the  Tsars  with  the  laudable 
diligence  of  their  protectors.  Later  the  Palace  Com- 
mandant told  me  the  same  story.  "Shortly  before 
the  Revolution,"  he  said,  "Nicholas,  frightened  for 
his  safety,  himself  entered  the  vaults  and  examined 
everything  personally.  As  he  did  not  understand 
technical  matters  he  was  profoundly  impressed  by 
scores  of  wires  which  had  no  functions;  and  he  went 
away  in  the  conviction  that  the  continuous  wooden 
box  and  the  mysterious  door-boxes  contributed 
potently  to  his  safety."  This  was  an  analogue  of  the 
Okhrana  spy  system,  which  was  also  inverted 
camouflage — an  excuse  to  put  money  into  the  hands 
of  officials,  and  a  means  for  impressing  the  Imperial 
Family  with  the  zeal  and  efficiency  of  the  Okhr ana's 
agents.  Later,  when  the  revolutionary  soldiers  broke 
discipline  and  entered  the  palace  in  order  to  destroy 
wines  which  they  believed  were  being  preserved  for 
the  Tsar's  use,  it  was  their  favorite  sport  to  try  and 
make  the  mysterious  signals  work. 

A  description  of  a  visit  paid  on  the  same  day  to 
Rasputin's  grave  fits  logically  into  a  chapter  on  the 
poisons  of  the  Autocracy.  The  grave  lies  about  a 
hundred  yards  to  the  right  of  the  road  which  runs 
round  the  palace  park;  and  before  reaching  it  one 
has  to  cross  a  plain  intersected  by  a  deep  ravine,  which 
was  then  covered  in  deep  snow.  The  site,  at  least 


30         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

in  winter,  is  desolate  and  forbidding.  Soldiers  whom 
we  met  on  the  way  assured  us  that  the  Tsaritsa  a 
day  before  had  secretly  left  the  palace,  carrying  a 
wreath  of  flowers;  and  that  she  had  then  first  dis- 
covered— what  everyone  else  knew — that  the  revolu- 
tionaries had  disinterred  the  body,  and  scattered  the 
ashes  to  the  winds  of  heaven.  The  Palace  Com- 
mandant assured  me  that  the  Tsaritsa  never  left  the 
palace  after  the  Tsar's  arrival  as  prisoner;  and  as 
she  had  been  ill  with  measles  this  account  is  probably 
correct.  But  it  is  true  that  before  the  Revolution  the 
Tsaritsa  prayed  daily  at  the  grave,  and  that  the 
initiative  in  building  a  chapel  around  it  was  hers. 

The  chapel  was  never  finished.  In  its  present  state 
when  seen  from  a  distance  it  could  not  easily  be  dis- 
tinguished from  a  half-built  villa.  The  rough  log 
walls  are  about  breast-high,  showing  the  lower  half 
of  window-openings.  These  windows  open  into  half 
a  dozen  tiny  chapels  or  cells  for  worshipers  and 
devotees;  and  inside  is  a  walled  space,  the  size  of  an 
average  dwelling  room,  in  a  corner  of  which  Rasputin 
was  buried.  No  civilians  were  in  sight — the  only 
civilian  met  on  the  way,  an  old  woman,  answered  my 
question  about  the  location  of  the  grave  with  "How 
could  you  wish  to  see  such  an  abomination?" — but 
the  chapel  was  full  of  soldiers  who  shouted,  sang,  and 
made  ribald  remarks  about  the  Romanoffs.  On  the 
log  walls  are  indecent  sketches  and  unrepeatable  jokes. 
There  is  a  rude  drawing  of  the  Tsaritsa  being 
scrubbed  in  her  bath  by  the  mystic;  and  over  the 


"THE  POISON  OF  AUTOCRACY"  31 

vacant  grave  is  the  legend  "Here  lies  Grishka  (nasty 
Gregory)  Rasputin,  shame  of  the  House  of  Romanoff, 
and  shame  of  the  Orthodox  Church."  At  the  bottom 
of  the  grave  squatted  a  very  ugly  little  Siberian 
soldier  who  when  he  saw  spectators  began  to  execute 
the  dance  known  as  the  trepak;  and  other  soldiers 
standing  around  began  to  dance  also  and  spit  into  the 
grave. 

The  desecration  of  the  grave  was  typical  of  the 
attitude  of  revolutionary  Russia  towards  the  Imperial 
Family  and  the  mystic  Siberian  adventurer  who 
played  such  a  truly  oriental  role  in  the  Empire's  down- 
fall. The  educated  classes  of  Petrograd  showed  no 
more  moderation  than  the  ignorant  soldiers  in  their 
execration  of  both.  Newspapers  were  daily  publish- 
ing articles  and  feuilletons,  mostly  impudent  inven- 
tions, describing  Court  scandals;  and  picture  theaters 
were  producing  "The  Nightly  Orgies  of  Rasputin," 
heroines  of  which  were  the  unfortunate  Empress  and 
her  confidante,  Madame  Vuirubova.  The  long-sup- 
pressed liberty  of  speech  had  come  with  a  vengeance 
and  taken  the  inevitable  forms.  The  poison  of  the 
Autocracy,  in  fact,  communicated  itself  to  the  people; 
and  its  effects  are  to-day  appearing  in  a  new  form 
in  the  license,  the  espionage  on  "counter-revolu- 
tionaries" and  the  reign  of  terror — parodies  rather 
than  parallels  of  the  Romanoff  system — of  the  Bol- 
shevik Soviets. 


CHAPTER  III 

WITH   THE   SIBERIAN    EXILES 

THE  decay  of  the  Revolution  into  disorder  and 
anarchy  began  very  much  sooner  after  the  deposition 
of  the  Tsar  than  foreigners  usually  believe.  It  began 
almost  immediately;  and  it  was  only  the  brave  front 
kept  up  at  Petrograd  and  the  emphatic  announcements 
that  Russia's  Army  would  continue  to  fight  that  had 
the  effect  of  blinding  observers  in  Ally  countries. 
Observers  on  the  spot  who  were  experienced  in  Rus- 
sian affairs  feared  a  collapse  from  the  first.  The 
elements  of  disintegration  were  too  many  and  too 
strong.  They  came  from  the  most  opposite  sides. 
Potent  as  evil  forces,  as  I  stated  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  were  the  unemployed  spies,  informers  and 
agents  provocateurs  of  the  vanished  regime.  But  even 
more  potent  was  the  opposite  class  of  personally 
honest  and  politically  sincere  men  and  women  of  the 
extreme  left  whose  slogan  was:  Better  no  Revolution 
at  all  than  a  non-Socialist  Revolution.  Unconsciously 
the  two  classes  collaborated:  the  bloodstained,  mer- 
cenary wretches  of  the  dispersed  Okhrana,  who 
thirsted  to  see  the  lavish  old  order  restored,  and  mean- 

32 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  33 

time  lived  on  German  pay;  and  the  Bolsheviks,  who 
preferred  the  old  order  to  any  revolutionary  political 
or  economical  system  that  fell  short  of  their  extreme 
demands. 

Nearly  all  the  chiefs  of  the  extremist  movement 
were  returned  exiles.  Trotsky  from  New  York; 
Lenine  from  Switzerland  via  Germany;  Tokoi,  the 
Finnish  Socialist  dictator  from  Colorado,  were  types 
among  leaders.  But  in  the  rank  and  file  of  Bolshevism 
were  also  many  reimported  Russians  from  America, 
France,  Switzerland  and  Scandinavia.  And  the  rest 
of  the  rank  and  file,  in  the  days  before  the  Army 
went  over  wholesale  to  Bolshevism,  was  largely  com- 
posed of  political  exiles  back  from  Siberia.  The 
liberation  of  the  Siberian  exiles  is  therefore  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  tragedy  of  the  Revolution;  and  as 
the  only  foreigner  who  went  East  specially  to  witness 
the  release  I  find  it  necessary  to  give  the  facts  in  full. 

I  started  on  this  expedition  late  in  March,  traveling 
by  the  Siberian  Express  with  the  intention  of  going 
first  to  Ekaterinburg,  the  Ural  mining  center,  where 
the  ex-Tsar  wras  later  imprisoned  and  murdered,  and 
next  to  Tiumen,  the  first  important  town  in  West 
Siberia  in  which  would  congregate  exiles  from  the 
province  of  Tobolsk.  In  the  train  were  a  Duma  mem- 
ber, M.  Rozanoff,  and  two  members  of  the  Council 
of  the  Empire,  all  traveling  as  Commissaries  of  the 
new  Provisional  Government  with  the  duty  of  inter- 
preting the  Revolution  to  remote  and  backward 
populations  in  the  eastern  provinces  in  preparation  for 


34         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

the  Constituent  Assembly.  Like  most  Russians,  the 
Commissaries  predicted  that  with  the  Tsardom 
abolished  the  country  would  make  speedy  progress 
towards  reconstruction,  and  emerge  triumphantly 
from  the  war.  I  doubted  this  faith.  The  Autocracy, 
I  knew,  had  thoroughly  demoralized  the  people ;  in  the 
customary  phrase,  Russians  were  "not  fit  for  free- 
dom/' which  does  not  mean  that  the  miserable 
despotism  of  the  Tsars  was  fit  for  them,  but  only 
that  misgovernment  had  left  certain  undesirable  traces 
on  the  people,  and  that  this  would  retard  reconstruc- 
tion. Not  understanding  this,  and  quite  rightly  rea- 
soning that  the  Tsardom  was  the  source  of  all  past 
misfortunes,  Russians  regarded  their  later  misfor- 
tunes as  surprising  and  lamentable.  Lamentable  they 
were,  but  not  surprising.  The  immediate  success  of 
the  Revolution — the  speedy  consolidation  of  the  new 
liberties  side  by  side  with  order — would  have  been 
surprising,  so  surprising  indeed  as  to  cast  doubt  on 
the  legend  of  the  all-corrupting  badness  of  the 
Tsardom. 

The  Siberian  Express  showed  the  first  symptoms 
of  revolutionary  disorder.  Disbanded  soldiers,  who 
already  in  Petrograd  had  begun  to  occupy  without 
payment  the  street-cars  and  the  best  theater  seats, 
traveled  without  regard  to  class  in  the  overcrowded 
trains.  Lying  side  by  side  with,  and  even  on  top 
of  one  another,  they  slept  in  the  corridors  and 
lavatories.  The  railroad  stations  were  crowded  with 
soldiers  clamoring  for  food  and  transport.  At 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  35 

Petrograd  food  conditions  had  been  threatening;  but 
as  we  moved  east  they  became  considerably  better — 
white  bread,  which  never  appeared  in  the  capital,  was 
sold  at  the  stations  of  Vologda  and  Viatka;  and 
although  the  prices  were  high,  that  was  less  the  result 
of  scarcity  than  of  the  continuous  fall  in  the  value 
of  the  paper  rouble.  At  this  stage  of  the  Revolution 
the  soldiers  were  still  behaving  politely;  but  they 
already  looked  upon  themselves  as  revolutionary 
authorities;  and  their  stereotyped  reply  to  protests 
against  their  crowding  into  the  already-crowded  cars 
was:  "I  am  going  to  shed  my  blood,  but  you  are  a 
slacker."  This  answer  I  even  received  from  a  deserter 
who  was  flying  from  the  front  to  his  home  in  Siberia. 
In  Ekaterinburg  I  found  a  hundred  thousand 
soldiers,  a  number  almost  equal  to  the  civilian  popula- 
tion. A  quarter  of  these  were  deserters.  The  town 
was  also  crowded  with  Austrian  soldier  prisoners, 
who  by  their  smartness  contrasted  sharply  with  the 
slovenly  Russians.  These  prisoners  were  having  a 
good  time;  their  relations  with  the  inhabitants  were 
good;  and  thanks  to  their  superior  technical  training 
and  greater  general  adaptability  they  rendered  con- 
siderable services,  and  were  much  more  welcome  than 
the  disorderly  native  soldiers.  In  general,  disorder 
was  much  in  evidence  in  Ekaterinburg;  and  it  showed 
itself  in  the  treatment  of  the  political  exiles.  Already 
some  thousands  had  passed  through  the  town;  many 
thousands  more  were  on  the  way;  and  telegrams  had 
been  received  from  Petrograd  begging  East-Russians 


36         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

and  Siberians  to  give  the  exiles  a  reception  expressive 
of  the  gratitude  and  veneration  of  the  liberated  nation. 
And  indeed  in  Ekaterinburg  there  was  an  imposing 
Committee  of  Reception,  the  heads  of  which  were 
a  lawyer  and  the  wife  of  a  railroad  official;  and  there 
was  gratitude  and  enthusiasm.  But  with  the  excep- 
tion of  cheering  and  speech-making,  the  city's  recep- 
tion of  the  martyrs  of  freedom  was  meager  in  the 
extreme.  The  exile  trains  were  overcrowded  with 
cold,  hungry  and  miserable  men  and  women,  and  even 
girls;  and  the  sufferers  had  been  from  ten  days  to 
a  fortnight  in  the  trains  after  sledging  for  days  and 
nights  through  the  Arctic  snows.  But  Ekaterinburg 
considered  it  had  done  its  duty  when  it  decorated  the 
station  and  posted  acclamatory  notices;  and  a  party 
of  exiles  who  were  turned  out  of  their  car  in  biting 
weather  could  not  even  find  an  official  who  would 
say  whither  they  were  to  be  sent  and  where  they 
could  spend  the  night. 

In  Ekaterinburg  I  met  my  first  exiles.  This  was 
a  trainload  of  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  all 
crowded  into  two  very  uncomfortable  third-class  cars. 
They  had  been  nine  days  on  the  road  from  Irkutsk 
in  East  Siberia.  The  overcrowding  was  so  great  that 
many  lay  on  the  floor,  and  on  the  bare  board  beds 
meant  for  one  person  there  were  always  two.  There 
was  no  ventilation,  and  the  stench  was  insupportable. 
The  exiles  were  mostly  exhausted  or  ill ;  and  they  com- 
plained that  although  the  newspapers  were  full  of 
articles  glorifying  them  as  heroes  and  martyrs  noth- 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  31 

ing  had  been  clone  for  their  comfort.  The  only 
assistance  given  was  free  transport;  and  though  some 
towns  en  route  arranged  banquets  none  had  thought 
of  providing  food  for  the  journey. 

The  exiles  belonged  predominantly  to  the  class  of 
petty  tradesfolk  and  artisans.  In  pre-Revolutionary 
Russia,  all  classes  had  participated  in  opposition  to 
the  Autocracy;  but  the  backbone  of  active  Revolu- 
tionism was  the  superior  workingman  and  the  small 
tradesman — the  micstchanin — who  filled  the  gap 
between  the  peasant  and  the  educated  "Intelli- 
gentsiya."  About  half  the  exiles  were  Jewish.  About 
one  in  ten  was  a  girl.  Some  from  remote  parts  wore 
sheepskin  or  wolfskin  garments;  but  most  were  in 
mixed  peasant  and  city  clothing.  All  were  neglected 
and  dirty;  and  none  had  baggage  other  than  bundles 
of  ragged  clothing.  The  dim  cars  with  their  thick 
atmosphere  resembled  Asiatic  pest-houses;  and  the 
resemblance  was  a  real  one,  for  the  exiles  had  come 
from  a  country  of  typhus,  scurvy  and  small-pox.  This 
I  learned  to  my  cost,  for  after  returning  to  Petrograd 
I  fell  ill  with  small-pox,  and  spent  a  month  in  a 
military  clinic  in  the  Vyborg  suburb. 

The  news  of  the  Revolution  was  received  by  the 
Siberian  bureaucracy  with  terror.  Popular  vengeance 
was  feared.  Most  of  the  officials,  however,  were  not 
honestly  devoted  to  the  Autocracy ;  as  a  rule  they  had 
no  political  tenets  of  any  kind;  but  mechanically 
fulfilled  their  duties  for  salary;  and  had  no  reason — 
and  indeed  no  means — for  resisting  the  local  spread 


38         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

of  the  Petrograd  revolt.  That  the  lower  bureaucracy 
was  not  devoted  to  the  Tsardom  might  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  before  the  Revolution,  the  mass 
of  Petrograd  officials  voted  for  the  Constitutional 
Democratic  Party.  When  news  of  the  Revolution 
reached  Siberia,  the  police  did  not  resist;  some  police- 
men even  anticipated  the  mob  in  releasing  prisoners. 
But  in  most  towns  the  officials  and  jailers  were 
violently  dispossessed  before  they  could  proclaim  their 
attitude;  and  the  exiles  and  prisoners  were  at  once 
set  free.  Less  speed  was  shown  in  supplying  them 
with  money  and  necessaries.  A  month  after  the 
Revolution  only  a  fraction  of  the  exiles  had  started 
for  home;  and  ten  thousand,  I  learned,  were  waiting 
for  money,  clothes  and  railroad  accommodation  at 
three  stations  east  of  Lake  Baikal.  Very  little  harm 
was  done  to  the  officials  and  police.  The  chief  hatred 
was  felt  for  the  Okhrana  and  for  the  gendarmery 
which  conducted  all  political  processes.  At  Tobolsk, 
the  oldest  of  exile  centers,  where  Nicholas  II  was 
imprisoned  after  his  removal  from  Tsarskoe  Selo,  a 
few  bureaucrats  were  killed;  and  at  Krasnoyarsk,  the 
Empire's  reddest  town,  famous  for  its  "republic"  in 
I9°5»  excited  demonstrations  were  followed  by 
murder  and  by  the  flogging  to  death  of  a  particularly 
detested  policeman.  Such  violence  was  exceptional. 
Feeling  as  a  rule  vented  itself  in  rhetorical  excesses, 
leaving  old  foes  in  peace,  and  most  men  were  willing 
to  accept  the  officials'  sincere  or  insincere  espousal  of 
the  Revolution's  cause. 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  39 

In  Ekaterinburg's  very  dirty  and  very  gorgeous 
American  Hotel,  a  typical  Russian  provincial  hotel 
started  upon  most  modern  principles  and  allowed  at 
once  to  lapse  into  utter  Asiatic  barbarism,  I  found 
two  exiles.  One  was  a  medical  student  who  had 
spent  four  years  in  Eastern  Siberia.  He  had  been 
falsely  accused  of  conspiring  against  the  Prefect  of 
Moscow.  After  acquittal  by  a  court  he  was  rearrested, 
and  sent  by  administrative  order  to  the  Narim  exile 
settlement  in  North  Siberia.  He  escaped,  and  had 
traveled  over  a  thousand  miles  before  he  was  caught. 
In  a  second  flight  attempt,  he  shot  a  village  guard, 
and  for  this  he  was  condemned  to  lifelong  katorga, 
the  severest  form  of  penitentiary  punishment.  When 
news  of  the  Revolution  reached  his  town,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  politicals  commandeered  all  sledges,  and 
started  across  the  three  feet  deep  snow.  Among  them 
were  a  dozen  women  and  children.  Many  perished 
before  the  train  of  sledges  reached  the  railroad.  The 
student  arrived  in  such  exhaustion  that  he  had  to  be 
carried  to  bed.  He  reported  that  the  first  railroad 
town  reached  was,  like  Ekaterinburg,  wild  with  en- 
thusiasm ;  there  were  flags,  banquets  and  speeches ;  but 
when  the  exiles  asked  for  warm  clothing  they  were 
told  that  the  help  organization  was  not  yet  complete; 
and  they  shivered  for  days  in  unheated  rooms. 

The  other  exile's  story  was  more  dramatic.  Some 
weeks  before  the  Revolution  he  fled  from  a  partic- 
ularly cold  and  remote  settlement  on  the  Lena.  He 
was  well  equipped;  and  had  a  forged  passport  of  a 


40         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

kind  that  formerly  was  manufactured  in  large  num- 
bers by  a  Jewish  corporation  of  Odessa.  In  spite  of 
his  specious  passport  he  feared  to  enter  a  railroad 
town;  and  he  spent  many  nights  in  the  Siberian  cold 
with  no  better  shelter  than  a  snow-hut.  At  last,  ex- 
haustion and  hunger  convinced  him  that  he  must  face 
the  risk.  He  chose  his  town,  entered  the  outskirts, 
climbed  a  fence,  and  secreted  himself  in  a  toolshed, 
and  fell  asleep.  He  was  awakened  by  a  terrific  uproar 
and  the  sound  of  firing.  The  cause  he  could  not 
guess.  In  the  morning  he  rang  the  bell  of  a  house. 
Terrified  by  his  wild  and  haggard  appearance,  the 
servant  ran  away ;  and  the  exile  walked  into  a  dining- 
room  where  he  found  a  young  girl  at  breakfast.  He 
threw  himself  on  his  knees,  and  exclaimed,  "I  am  an 
escaped  exile.  Help  me  to  get  away!"  The  girl  rose, 
and  said  with  a  laugh,  "There  are  no  more  exiles. 
You  are  free."  The  exile  exclaimed,  "What  do  you 
mean?  You  are  making  fun  of  me!"  "I  am  not 
making  fun,"  answered  the  girl.  "There  are  no  more 
exiles.  Petrograd  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Revolution. 
In  our  town,  there  are  fifty  other  exiles;  and  they 
are  all  free."  The  exile  was  brought  to  the  City 
Hall,  whence  had  come  the  uproar  of  the  preceding 
night;  and  with  better  luck  than  most  of  his  fellow 
exiles,  he  was  given  warm  clothing,  money  and  food 
for  the  whole  journey  to  Europe. 

The  city  of  Tiumen  was  thronged  with  released 
exiles,  some  from  Tobolsk,  some  from  East  Siberia, 
the  latter  having  been  detrained  against  their  will,  but 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  41 

not  told  where  they  were  to  go.  Here  I  met  the  most 
interesting  exile  yet  released.  In  a  crowd  of  typical 
agitators,  men  and  women,  undersized,  unwashed  and 
largely  Jewish,  stood  a  yery  tall,  well-dressed  man 
with  a  fresh  complexion,  clear  blue  eyes,  and  an  Im- 
perial beard  that  made  him  resemble  an  old-time 
Frenchman.  Confident  that  from  such  an  obvious 
member  of  the  "Intelligentsiya"  I  should  get  informa- 
tion about  the  exiles'  movements,  I  asked  him  who 
he  was.  He  took  off  his  hat,  made  a  comic  bow,  and 
answered,  "I  am  Michael  Anuikhin,  Terrorist 
assassin,  executioner  of  General  Kurloff,  and 
katorzhnik  (convict  slave)."  I  remembered  this 
murder  well.  Kurloff,  a  kinsman  of  a  particularly 
despotic  Governor  of  Minsk  of  the  same  name,  was 
military  commandant  of  the  construction  shops  of  the 
Warsaw  Railroad.  During  a  strike,  he  kidnaped 
four  hundred  employees,  and  planned  to  send  them 
without  trial  to  Siberia.  In  revenge  for  this,  the  good- 
looking,  debonair  gentleman  before  me  slaughtered 
him  in  a  particularly  brutal  way,  which  he  now,  stand- 
ing in  a  group  of  admiring  exiles,  described  with  great 
composure.  The  main  point  of  the  story  was 
Anuikhin's  adroitness  in  taking  advantage  for  murder 
of  the  brutal  KurlofFs  passion  for  wayside  flowers. 

Following  the  practise  of  the  Autocracy,  which, 
except  during  the  period  of  Premier  Stolypin's  Field 
Courts-Martial,  seldom  executed  political  criminals. 
Anuikhin  was  sentenced  to  katorga  for  life.  For  a 
year  he  was  dragged  from  one  European  prison  to 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

another,  after  which  he  was  sent  to  the  Alexandrovsk 
convict  jail  in  East  Siberia.  This  prison  contained 
twelve  thousand  ordinary  criminals  and  five  hundred 
politicals;  and  there  Anuikhin  spent  the  next  ten 
years.  As  result  of  his  great  strength  and  of  the 
fears  of  officials  in  European  Russia  he  early  got  a 
bad  name.  When  ordered  by  a  frightened  governor 
to  put  up  his  hands,  he  obeyed  so  quickly  that  he 
was  accused  of  an  attempt  to  strike  out;  and  he  was 
listed  as  dangerous.  He  was  flogged  repeatedly;  and 
in  Siberia  for  five  years  he  was  manacled.  Always 
he  had  chains  upon  wrists  and  ankles;  when  at  work 
he  was  chained  to  a  wheelbarrow;  and  at  night  he 
was  chained  to  the  wall  of  his  cell.  This  was  the 
rule  with  convicts  during  the  first  "punitive"  period, 
which  preceded  the  "probation"  period  and  several 
other  periods,  each  with  mitigations  of  treatment,  end- 
ing in  release  "on  settlement."  The  curse  of  the 
Alexandrovsk  prison  during  Anuikhin' s  stay  was  the 
Deputy  Governor.  When  the  Governor  was  present, 
things  went  well;  there  was  even  a  prison  theater 
which  was  shown  with  pride  to  foreigners,  who  went 
home  and  reported  on  the  beauty  and  humanity  of 
Siberia's  prison  administration.  But  when  the 
Governor — a  frivolous  old  man  who  could  not  do 
without  holidays — departed,  his  deputy  with  no  other 
aim  than  his  own  amusement  ordered  wholesale 
flogging  of  prisoners,  and  as  a  rule  Anuikhin  was 
the  first  victim.  Not  long  before  the  Revolution  there 
was  a  revolt,  in  which  a  dozen  convicts  were  killed 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  43 

and  wounded,  and  two  of  the  guards  were  strangled. 
When  news  of  the  Revolution  arrived,  the  Deputy 
Governor,  bolder  than  most  local  officials,  determined 
to  celebrate  the  event  by  giving  certain  convicts  a 
special  flogging,  stating  cynically  that  it  would  fit 
them  for  liberty;  and  he  was  only  prevented  doing 
this  by  the  arrival  of  the  Revolution's  liberating 
troops. 

Some  of  the  other  exiles  had  had  remarkable  ad- 
ventures; and  some  told  of  events  which  they  did  not 
claim  to  have  witnessed,  and  which  sounded  more 
romantic  than  true.  The  most  picturesque  tale  came 
from  a  Social-Revolutionary  "expropriator"  (robber 
for  political  aims)  Popoff,  just  escaped  from 
Tobolsk  jail.  When  the  revolutionary  troops  began 
the  work  of  release,  he  and  a  dozen  other  men  await- 
ing transportation  to  a  more  remote  prison  were  in 
chains.  The  prison  armorer,  fearing  popular 
vengeance,  fled,  and  no  one  was  found  who  could 
remove  the  chains  quickly.  Meantime  citizens  had 
stormed  the  Governor's  palace — the  gloomy  barracks 
in  which  later  lived  Nicholas  II — and  had  arranged  a 
banquet  at  which  the  guests  of  honor  were  to  be  the 
released  political  prisoners.  Who  would  remove  the 
chains?  Blacksmiths  were  sought  for  in  vain; 
amateurs  with  files  volunteered;  but  the  labor  was 
great ;  and  the  banquet  was  delayed.  The  entertainers 
had  already  long  been  seated  when — preceded  by 
musicians  and  covered  with  red  flags — into  the  hall 
marched  the  prisoners  still  in  chains.  And  the  banquet 


44         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

proceeded  with  the  clang  of  the  captives'  manacles 
mingling  with  the  din  of  knives  and  forks,  the  ring 
of  glasses  and  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  the 
revolutionary  guests. 

At  Tiumen  I  met  a  young  and  attractive  girl  who 
had  been  in  exile  since  the  age  of  sixteen.  As  a 
senior  student  at  the  gymnasium  of  Kursk  in 
European  Russia,  she  had  led  a  school  organization 
directed  against  the  authorities;  and  also,  as  was  the 
rule,  against  parental  authority.  Her  room  was 
searched,  and  the  usual  "revolutionary"  documents 
were  found.  With  a  carload  of  thieves  and  mur- 
deresses she  was  sent  to  Siberia,  and  cut  off  from 
all  communication  with  her  kin  folk.  She  lived  four 
years  in  the  exile  settlement  of  Narim.  There  she 
fell  in  love  with  a  consumptive  student;  and  on  his 
dying  tried  to  kill  herself.  A  police  officer  sent  to 
examine  into  her  case  took  her  as  governess  for  his 
children;  but  he  made  love  to  her  in  such  an  odious 
way  that  she  again  attempted  suicide,  this  time  with 
rat  poison.  The  policeman  beat  her  ferociously;  and 
she  resolved  to  kill  him.  She  took  his  gun  during 
his  absence  and  posted  herself  at  a  window,  awaiting 
his  return.  But  the  policeman  was  brought  back 
already  dead  as  result  of  a  town  quarrel.  His  widow 
gave  the  girl  money,  and  sent  her  to  Tchita,  then  the 
easiest  place  for  procuring  a  false  passport ;  and  while 
she  was  there  the  Revolution  broke  out.  She  wit- 
nessed sanguinary  scenes.  The  most  tyrannical 
policemen  and  gendarmes  fled  from  the  revolutionary 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  45 

mob;  but  a  posse  pursued  them.  Women  went  out 
to  see  the  impending  massacre;  and  they  took  with 
them  the  exile  girl.  They  reached  the  scene  as  the 
mob  was  setting  fire  to  a  wooden  house  in  which  the 
fugitives  had  taken  refuge.  The  policemen  shot 
furiously  from  their  trap;  the  pursuers  replied;  and 
thirty  men  were  killed  and  wounded  before  the  house 
went  up  in  flames,  burning  the  survivors  to  death. 

This  young  woman  had  the  makings  of  a  Bolshevik 
of  extreme  type.  She  assured  me  that  the  Provisional 
Government  of  Prince  Lvoff  (of  whose  activities  she 
knew  nothing  whatever)  was  worse  than  the  Autoc- 
racy because  it  was  "sham-Liberal"  and  bourgeois; 
it  must  therefore  be  overthrown  by  the  proletariat. 
"No  bomb  ever  loaded  against  despots,"  she  said, 
"was  in  such  a  hurry  to  explode  as  some  bombs 
are  now."  In  this  spirit,  a  spirit  which  boded  ill 
for  the  Revolution,  she  differed  from  most  of  the 
other  exiles  only  by  her  greater  bitterness.  The  exiles 
were  mostly  Social-Democrats;  and  many  of  them 
were  Bolsheviks.  Their  past  intense  hatred  of 
Tsarism  had  been  transferred  to  the  liberal  and 
humane  regime  which  followed.  Most  of  the  exiles 
expressed  themselves  as  already  profoundly  discon- 
tented with  the  Revolution's  course.  The  Revolution 
had  indeed  had  only  three  weeks  to  show  its  quality; 
but  the  exiles  were  not  willing  to  give  it  longer  time 
because,  they  proclaimed,  it  was  taking  a  course 
vicious  in  principle  and  therefore  irremediable.  They 
considered  that  the  workingmen  and  soldiers  who  had 


46         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

overthrown  the  Autocracy  should  have  seized  power 
from  the  first  and  realized  on  the  spot  the  full 
program  of  Marxian  Socialism.  As  that  had  not 
happened  they  were  bound  for  Petrograd  "to  make 
things  hot,"  as  they  threatened  "for  the  bourgeoisie" 
In  fact,  soon  after  their  arrival,  workmen  and  soldiers 
began  to  parade  the  Nevsky  Prospect  with  banners 
inscribed  "Down  with  the  Ten  Capitalist  Ministers." 
The  peasant  exiles  and  the  murderer  Anuikhin  were 
free  from  this  menacing  spirit.  I  knew  before  the 
Revolution  that  the  peasants,  though  healthily  anti- 
Tsarian  in  sentiment,  were  less  spoiled  than  the  towns- 
folk, by  the  demagogues  who  are  the  curse  of 
Democracy;  and  in  this  exile  train  were  a  few  fine 
peasant  types,  young  men  sent  to  Siberia  for  no  worse 
offense  than  enlightening  their  fellow  villagers.  These 
men  returned  home  in  a  spirit  of  conciliation.  The 
murderer  Anuikhin  was  of  the  same  mind.  He  told 
me  that  he  would  support  any  Government  that  ruled 
in  legal  way  on  democratic  lines,  and  would  oppose 
extremist  demands,  which  were  certain,  he  predicted, 
to  cause  trouble.  After  comparing  his  words  with 
the  statements  of  other  exiles,  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  certain  leaning  towards  murder  does  not  neces- 
sarily disqualify  a  man  from  talking  sense.  The 
assassin  and  katorznik  was  a  cautious,  sensible  man, 
who  foresaw  that  the  Revolution  was  bound  to  pass 
through  severe  trials,  and  who  had  resolved  not  to 
aggravate  the  inevitable  trouble  by  demanding  too 
much,  and  not  to  hamper  the  Liberal  and  progressive 


WITH  THE  SIBERIAN  EXILES  47 

men  then  in  power  who  were  doing  their  best  for  their 
Fatherland. 

Before  I  left  Tinmen,  the  railroad  station  was  im- 
pressively flagged  in  honor  of  the  Martyrs  of  the 
Revolution;  and  magniloquent  speeches  were  made. 
But  of  about  two  thousand  exiles  in  the  town  five 
hundred  had  to  spend  the  night  in  the  open;  and 
nearly  all  went  hungry.  Elsewhere  in  Siberia  condi- 
tions were  much  the  same.  Later  the  exiles*  trials 
were  mitigated.  They  were  not  only  made  heroes 
of,  but  they  were  clothed  and  fed,  and  generally 
treated  so  well  that  the  ordinary,  unpolitical  citizen 
who  had  not  been  a  martyr  of  Autocracy  began  to 
regard  them  with  envy.  The  inevitable  happened. 
When  the  ordinary  unpolitical  citizen  read  that 
IvanofT,  exiled  to  Siberia  for  murdering  General 
Pavloff,  had  had  a  gift  of  a  thousand  roubles,  or 
had  married  a  beautiful  heiress,  he  regretted  that  he 
too  had  not  killed  someone.  So  all  over  the  country 
appeared  fraudulent  exiles,  who  told  credulous  en- 
thusiasts that  they  had  committed  political  crimes 
which  were  committed  by  other  men  or  were  not  com- 
mitted at  all.  For  three  weeks  Moscow  welcomed, 
clothed,  fed  and  overwhelmed  with  gifts  a  handsome 
young  exile  who  had  murdered  the  commander  of 
troops  at  Kazan,  and  paid  therefor  with  four  years 
in  chains;  and  it  was  not  until  a  rival  appeared  who 
claimed  it  was  he  that  had  murdered  the  commander 
that  citizens  discovered  that  the  commander  had  not 
been  murdered  at  all.  There  were  other  such  cases; 


48         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

and  much  of  the  money  collected  for  genuine  sufferers 
never  found  its  way  into  the  sufferers'  pockets. 

In  this,  as  in  other  matters,  the  bad  organization, 
the  credulity  and  the  emotionalism  that  were  destined 
to  destroy  the  Revolution  were  in  evidence  from  the 
first. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    CRADLE   OF    THE   SOVIETS 

THE  Bolshevik  agitation,  fanned  openly  by  returned 
exiles,  and  secretly  by  adherents  of  the  old  regime, 
made  the  orderly  development  of  the  Revolution  im- 
possible from  the  first.  True,  the  nominal  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  the  Provisional  Government  was  the 
Petrograd  Soviet  or  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Deputies,  which  had  created  an  imperium  in 
imperio,  a  government  existing  beside  the  Provisional 
Government,  and  claiming  to  control  its  actions;  and 
in  this  Council  the  Bolsheviks  were  a  minority.  But 
minority  Bolshevism  was  aggressive;  and  the 
moderate  Menshevik  and  Social-Revolutionary  major- 
ity had  not  the  courage  to  back  the  Government  in 
crushing  it  even  when  it  resorted  to  disorder  and 
crime.  As  a  result,  from  the  first"  days  of  the  Revolu- 
tion Bolshevism  was  a  potent  influence  in  general 
policy.  It  exercised  this  influence  in  two  directions: 
towards  the  immediate  realization  of  Marxian  Social- 
ism without  any  regard  for  the  country's  political  and 
social  interests:  and  towards  the  displacement  of  the 
Provisional  Government  by  an  untried  system  known 
as  Soviet  Government. 

49 


50         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

The  Soviet  idea  is  older  than  the  present  Revolu- 
tion. It  dates  from  the  Revolution  of  1905,  when 
Petrograd  workmen  under  the  leadership  of  a  certain 
Khrustalieff-Nossar  organized  a  Council  of  Work- 
men's Deputies  which  attempted  to  impose  its  will 
upon  Petrograd.  This  Council  was  suppressed,  and 
its  members  were  arrested  by  the  Witte-Durnovo 
Cabinet.  But  the  Soviet  idea  did  not  die;  and  when 
it  revived  in  March,  1917,  it  took  a  much  more  effec- 
tive form.  The  new  Soviets  were  Councils  not  only 
of  Workmen's  but  also  of  Soldiers'  Deputies.  In  the 
Petrograd  Soviet  was  represented  the  whole  local 
garrison ;  and  this  gave  the  Soviet  physical  power  with 
which  to  back  its  claim  to  control  the  Provisional 
Government.  The  first  Soviets,  however,  were  not 
intended  to  be  direct  organs  of  government.  They 
were  to  keep  an  eye  upon  and  to  influence  the  Provi- 
sional Government.  Direct  government  by  local 
Soviets,  linked  together  only  by  periodical  inter-Soviet 
congresses  at  the  capital,  is  a  later  invention.  It  was 
resorted  to  by  the  Bolsheviks  ostensibly  because  it 
is  democratic;  but  in  reality  because  it  ensured 
Bolshevik  power.  The  local  Soviets  represent  pre- 
dominantly the  soldiers  and  town  workmen,  who  are 
mostly  Bolshevik;  and  they  do  not  fairly  represent 
the  peasants  who  are  largely  Social-Revolutionary  and 
anti-Bolshevik.  The  anti-Soviet  Socialists — Social- 
Revolutionaries  and  Menshevik  Social-Democrats — 
would  always  dominate  a  directly  elected  Russian 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          51 

Parliament;  but  a  federation  of  Soviets,  the  present 
system,  must  give  a  large  majority  to  the  Bolsheviks. 

The  cradle  of  this  novel  system  of  government  is 
the  city  of  Kronstadt.  From  the  first  day  in  June, 
on  which  Kronstadt  in  the  name  of  the  Soviet  system 
defied  the  Provisional  Government  of  Prince  Lvoff, 
down  to  the  November  day  when  Kronstadt  detach- 
ments helped  to  overthrow  Kerensky,  the  fortress  city 
has  led  in  Russian  affairs.  To  a  great  extent  this 
has  been  a  pre-eminence  in  evil ;  and  to  those  familiar 
with  Kronstadt's  exceptional  political  and  racial  char- 
acter and  its  recent  history  this  pre-eminence  causes 
no  surprise. 

Though  Kronstadt  is  probably  the  most  famous 
fortress  in  the  world,  few  Americans  have  clear 
knowledge  of  what  it  is.  The  one  generally  known 
fact  is  that  it  is  the  impregnable  sea  defense  of 
Petrograd.  To  Russians  Kronstadt  is  equally  well 
knowrn  as  a  populous  city.  On  Kotlin  Island,  where 
lie  the  naval  and  commercial  ports,  the  administration 
center  and  the  industrial  town,  fortifications  occupy 
only  a  small  area.  Most  of  the  forts  are  built  on 
two  chains  of  islets,  partly  natural  and  partly  artificial, 
which  run  from  Kotlin  Island  to  Oranienbaum,  a 
suburb  of  Petrograd  on  the  south  side  of  the  Gulf 
of  Finland,  and  to  near  Sestroretsk,  a  bathing  resort, 
on  the  north  side.  One  fort — Ino — is  built  on  the 
mainland  of  Finland. 

Kronstadt  city  on  Kotlin  Island  has  a  population 
of  sixty  thousand  persons,  Russians,  Finns  and 


52         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Esthonians,  probably  the  most  turbulent  and  an- 
archical population  in  the  world.  The  agitators  of 
Kronstadt  were  always  known  for  their  combination 
of  visionary  doctrinairism  and  rhetorical  violence ;  and 
they  were  partly  aided  and  partly  hampered  in  their 
revolutionary  plans  by  a  large  number  of  professional 
criminals,  whose  real  objects  were  murder  and 
plunder.  In  this  witch's  cauldron  was  the  additional 
element  of  terror  that  the  naval  and  military  garrisons 
were  unreliable.  During  the  Revolution  of  1905,  they 
revolted  and  murdered  their  officers.  After  that, 
discontented  and  mutinous  units  were  persistently 
crowded  on  to  the  island,  which  at  last  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  penal  settlement,  or  as  Russians  said, 
"a  suburban  Siberia."  The  officers  treated  their  men 
with  great  severity.  During  the  Revolution  of  March, 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  again  revolted.  Under  cir- 
cumstances of  great  brutality  they  murdered  the 
Commander,  Admiral  Viren,  a  hero  of  the  Japanese 
War,  and  several  other  of  the  commanders.  Other 
unpopular  officers  were  thrown  into  jail.  For  a  few 
days,  anarchy  prevailed;  and  after  that  there  was 
little  physical  violence,  but  much  incendiary  rhetoric 
against  the  "bourgeois  Government"  of  Prince  Lvoff. 
On  the  Anchor  Place,  which  faces  the  Byzantine 
Naval  Cathedral,  were  daily  held  meetings  attended 
by  tens  of  thousands  of  workmen  who  threatened 
immediate  war  upon  Petrograd  if  it  did  not  at  once 
realize  Bolshevik  Socialist  notions.  The  soldiers  and 
sailors  threatened  to  send  the  obsolete  warships — the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          53 

main  fleet  was  at  Helsingfors — to  bombard  the  city, 
and  massacre  the  educated  and  propertied  classes.  For 
a  time  these  threats  remained  unaccomplished  as  result 
of  moderate  Socialist  influence  in  the  local  Council  of 
Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Deputies;  but  at 
the  end  of  May  the  storm  broke  loose.  Kronstadt 
then  practically  declared  itself  independent  of  the  rest 
of  Russia. 

Up  till  then  the  Provisional  Government  was  repre- 
sented in  Kronstadt,  as  everywhere  else,  by  a  Com- 
missary. As  a  rule  these  Commissaries  had  no  power, 
power  being  in  the  hands  of  the  Councils;  and  the 
Kronstadt  Commissary,  though  he  occupied  a  hand- 
some room  in  the  Naval  Officers'  Club — now  revolu- 
tionary headquarters — had  no  functions.  However, 
the  Commissary  was  a  symbol  of  the  unity  of 
Kronstadt  with  Russia  and  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
Provisional  Government.  On  the  ist  of  June 
Petrograd  received  the  news  that  the  Kronstadt 
Council  of  Deputies  had  dismissed  the  Commissary; 
and  had  declared  by  a  large  majority  that  in  future 
the  fortress  and  town  would  have  no  relations  with 
Russia  except  through  the  Petrograd  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies.  Kronstadt  thus 
repudiated  the  government  of  Prince  Lvoff.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  reported  that  the  agitators  of  the 
Anchor  Place  had  again  threatened  to  send  the  Fleet 
to  Petrograd  to  set  the  Bolshevik  Lenine  in  LvofFs 
place — this  although  the  Bolsheviks  in  the  Petrograd 


54         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Council  were  still  a  minority,  and  had  no  claim  what- 
ever to  represent  Russia. 

The  secession  of  Kronstadt  was  the  great  sensation 
of  the  Revolution  so  far.  It  was  foreseen  that  it 
would  lead  to  the  establishment  of  other  republics  in 
Great-Russian  territory,  and  that  by  proving  the  im- 
potence of  Petrograd  it  would  accelerate  the  separatist 
movements  in  Finland  and  the  Ukraine.  But  the 
main  dread  was  as  to  the  effect  upon  the  war.  The 
Gulf  of  Finland  was  now  free  from  ice;  and  Petro- 
grad asked  what  would  happen  if  the  German  Fleet 
took  advantage  of  Kronstadt's  disorganization,  and 
steamed  into  the  Neva.  The  Minister  of  Justice, 
Pereverseff,  who  had  himself  had  bad  experience  of 
Kronstadt,  having  nearly  been  lynched  as  result  of 
his  attempt  to  liberate  unjustly-held  prisoners,  re- 
assured me.  He  said  that  the  Government,  anticipa- 
ting Kronstadt's  action,  had  taken  certain  measures 
which  made  the  fortress  unnecessary  to  Petrograd's 
defense. 

The  Kronstadt  Soviet  was  now  seeking  collabora- 
tion with  other  Soviets  in  order  to  realize  its  notion 
of  general  Soviet  Government.  But  the  moderate 
majority  in  the  Petrograd  Soviet  condemned  Kron- 
stadt's action.  Kronstadt  thereupon  sent  delegates  to 
negotiate ;  and  with  these  returning  delegates  I  started 
for  Kronstadt  by  steamer.  Chief  of  the  delegation  on 
board  was  Liubovitch,  a  common  sailor  of  extraor- 
dinary intelligence  and  energy,  who  was  formerly 
president  of  the  local  Council  of  Deputies.  Liubovitch 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          55 

was  in  defiant  mood,  and  he  assured  me  that  Kron- 
stadt  would  resist  the  Provisional  Government  to  the 
last.  The  present  chief  authority  on  the  island,  he 
added,  was  Anatole  Lamanoff,  newly  elected  president 
of  the  Council  of  Deputies,  "a  young  man  of  burning 
zeal,  a  man  of  ideas  whom  you  should  certainly 
meet."  Lamanoff  was  the  "boy  dictator."  The  "boy 
dictator,"  now  twenty-five  years  old,  had  been  a 
student  of  chemistry  at  the  Petrograd  Technological 
High  School.  Early  in  the  War  he  was  sent  on 
government  work  to  Kronstadt;  and  there,  under  the 
guise  of  patriotic  lectures  to  the  working  men,  he 
had  preached  a  crusade  against  the  Autocracy,  full 
of  bitter  innuendo  and  ill-concealed  sarcasm.  "A 
daring,  ambitious  man  who  aimed  at  being  Napoleon 
and  Rousseau  in  one,"  Lamanoff,  said  his  admirer, 
combined  plans  of  universal  human  betterment  with 
great  efficiency  and  somewhat  dictatorial  methods. 
To  ensure  his  power  he  had  appointed  his  brother, 
Peter  Lamanoff,  a  boy  of  twenty-two,  "much  given 
to  poetry,"  said  Luibovitch,  commander  of  all  naval 
forces  on  Kronstadt  Island. 

On  arriving  at  Kronstadt,  I  made  for  the  Naval 
Officers'  Club,  passing  the  villa  of  the  former  Com- 
mander, where  Admiral  Viren  and  his  comrades  were 
murdered  in  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution. 
Violence  and  ideology  always  go  together  in  Russia; 
and  I  was  not  surprised  to  see  over  the  door  the 
inscription  "Headquarters  for  Revolutionary  Ameli- 
oration and  Ideal  Progress."  Kronstadt  showed  no 


56        RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

signs  of  damage;  and  the  Officers'  Club  was  intact. 
It  is  a  middle-sized,  two-storied  building,  hung  inside 
with  portraits  and  pictures  of  warships ;  and  decorated 
with  porcelain  and  statuary  given  to  warships  during 
their  visits  to  foreign  waters.  There  is  an  immense 
vase  of  Limoges  porcelain  presented  by  a  French  port 
at  the  height  of  the  Franco-Russian  Entente,  which 
preceded  the  Dual  Alliance.  On  the  top  floor  is  a 
handsome  theater  with  a  small  stage;  and  behind  this 
is  the  room  where  sat  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Council  of  Deputies.  This  Committee  was  then 
meeting,  but  the  boy  dictator  was  absent;  and  the 
temporary  presidency  was  held  by  a  gigantic  sailor 
named  YevstignayefT,  who,  I  was  told,  had  great  in- 
fluence in  the  Fleet. 

At  this  stage  of  the  Revolution,  though  the  demand 
for  peace  was  loud,  and  resentment  was  shown  at  the 
supposed  contempt  for  Russia's  ideals  by  the  Allies, 
there  was  no  general  sentiment  in  favor  of  an 
ignominious  peace.  On  hearing  that  a  visitor  from 
an  Ally  country  was  outside,  the  Executive  Committee 
admitted  me  to  its  meeting,  and  even  invited  me  to 
deliver  an  address.  The  thirty  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee were  seated  at  both  sides  of  a  long  table.  All 
were  in  army  or  navy  uniform.  They  kept  admirable 
order;  and  greeted  "our  friend  from  the  Allies"  with 
great  friendliness;  and  the  chairman,  the  sailor 
Yevstignayeff,  made  a  speech  proclaiming  for  com- 
plete solidarity  with  the  Allies.  Up  to  that  time  the 
Bolsheviks  had  not  captured  Kronstadt ;  the  Executive 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          57] 

Committee  and  the  Council  were  relatively  reasonable. 
But  it  was  the  extremist  minority,  always  threatening 
violence,  which  really  dominated  affairs. 

On  the  Executive  Committee  sat  only  one  officer; 
and  he  was  a  representative  of  Oranienbaum  on  the 
mainland.  The  Committee  found  it  necessary  to 
explain  this,  assuring  me  insincerely  that  there  was 
no  enmity  between  officers  and  men,  but  that  the 
officers  were  "on  grounds  of  principle"  excluded  from 
all  power.  The  town  prefect  was,  indeed,  an  officer; 
but  he  was  a  feeble  old  man  who  based  no  pretensions 
on  his  military  rank,  and  was  pityingly  allowed  to 
sign  unimportant  papers  and  do  other  mechanical 
work  on  condition  that  he  wore  no  uniform.  The 
officers  surviving  and  at  liberty  were  completely  under 
the  men's  control.  The  new  Commander  of  the 
Fortress,  a  colonel  named  Gerasimoff,  though  nomi- 
nally appointed  by  the  Provisional  Government,  was 
appointed  only  after  he  had  been  elected  by  a  vote 
of  the  Kronstadt  Council  of  Deputies;  and  the  Council 
tolerated  him  because  he  was  extremely  radical,  or, 
as  some  said,  a  Socialist.  Twice  a  week  Gerasimoff 
had  to  appear  before  the  Council  of  Deputies,  read 
reports  of  what  he  had  done,  and  secure  the  Council's 
approval.  The  officers  were  still  supposed  to  com- 
mand their  men  in  purely  military  and  naval  affairs; 
but  their  orders  on  such  subjects  were  first  submitted 
by  the  men  to  the  Executive  Committee,  and  were 
obeyed  only  if  they  had  the  Committee's  sanction. 

The  Soviet  Government  at  Kronstadt  boasted  that 


58         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

it  was  extremely  democratic.  No  politician  was 
allowed  to  be  too  prominent,  because  prominence  is 
undemocratic.  This  doctrine  seemed  to  be  violated 
by  the  ambitious  "boy  dictator,"  Lamanoff;  but 
Lamanoff  was  an  exception.  No  other  "prominent" 
persons  held  power;  and  to  my  question  who  led  in 
parliamentary  debates  I  got  the  answer  "The  mem- 
bers are  all  equal ;  it  is  against  Democracy  for  anyone 
to  lead."  In  accord  with  this  policy,  the  Kronstadt 
republic  had  no  ministers.  It  was  governed,  subject 
to  the  Executive  Committee,  by  departmental  com- 
missions, all  members  of  which  had  equal  power  and 
prestige.  There  was  an  Army  and  Navy  Commission, 
which  controlled  the  commanders  of  troops  and  ships ; 
there  was  a  very  active  Food  Commission,  which 
worked  so  well  that  isolated  Kronstadt  was  better  fed 
than  Petrograd;  there  was  a  Publications  Commission 
which  did  propaganda  work ;  and  there  was  a  Revision 
Commission,  controlling  all  expenditure,  which  as- 
sured me  that  it  had  summarily  stopped  the  embezzle- 
ment of  state  monies.  The  Council  of  Deputies,  or 
Parliament,  consisted  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen 
members — soldiers,  sailors  and  workmen,  with  three 
representatives  of  each  of  the  local  Socialist  organiza- 
tions, and  three  factory  women,  who  were  very  active 
and  eloquent.  All  the  members  were  Socialists,  some 
being  Social-Revolutionaries,  some  Menshevik  Social- 
Democrats,  some  Menshevik  Internationalists  and 
some  Bolsheviks.  The  Bolsheviks  numbered  about  a 
third  of  the  whole;  the  strongest  and  most  effective 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          59 

were  the  Social-Revolutionaries,  a  party  of  the 
peasants,  from  among  whom  came  most  of  the 
garrison.  "Parliament"  sat  in  the  theater  of  the 
Naval  Club,  from  which  had  been  removed  all 
Romanoff  portraits  except  that  of  Peter  the  Great, 
whom  apparently  even  a  Bolshevik  might  respect. 
The  debate,  during  my  stay,  promised  to  be  tame; 
it  concerned,  in  fact,  sewers,  and  the  right  of  certain 
applewomen  to  sell  at  a  particular  spot;  but  on  the 
latter  subject  a  fiery  speech  was  made  by  the  ex- 
President  of  the  Council,  the  soldier  Liubovitch;  and 
a  woman  member,  an  extreme  Bolshevik,  took  up  the 
same  question,  and  proved  with  skilful  analogies  from 
the  apple-trade  that  the  two  old  warships  which  Kron- 
stadt  used  for  training  should  be  sent  to  bombard 
Petrograd  and  overthrow  "The  Cabinet  of  the 
Capitalist  Ministers." 

The  boy-dictator  later  received  me  in  his  room. 
He  was  a  smooth-faced,  soft-eyed  and  mild-voiced 
youth  in  student's  uniform,  with  an  extremely  boyish 
expression  that  contrasted  sharply  with  his  full  black 
beard.  Lamanoff,  I  saw  at  once,  took  himself  very 
seriously;  but  in  energy  and  directness  he  seemed  in- 
ferior to  his  predecessor,  the  soldier  Liubovitch.  He 
began  by  telling  me  that  he  had  not  sought  power, 
which  had  been  thrust  upon  him.  "Why  thrust?" 
I  asked.  "Because  the  Revolution  thought  that  I 
had  the  general  ideas  which  it  had  hitherto  lacked ;  and 
now  I  am  going  to  put  these  ideas  into  force."  There- 


(60         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

upon  he  gave  me  the  reasons  for  Kronstadt's  defiance 
of  the  Government  of  Petrograd. 

"For  us,"  he  began,  "the  Provisional  Government 
no  longer  exists.  A  reunion  of  our  island  with  the 
rest  of  the  country  is  out  of  the  question.  Kronstadt's 
secession  is  not  the  result  of  any  quarrel  with  the 
bourgeois  Government  of  Prince  Lvoff.  It  is  an 
expression  of  our  extreme  democratic  conceptions. 
The  policy  which  we  are  carrying  out,  and  which  we 
hope  to  extend  to  the  rest  of  Russia,  is  based  on  our 
conviction  that  all  large  territorial  units  of  Govern- 
ment make  for  despotism.  Decentralization,  it  fol- 
lows, ought  to  go  extremely  far,  even  if  it  stops  short 
of  entire  independence.  It  cannot  stop  at  federation 
or  confederation.  That  is  far  too  close  an  association 
for  individual  or  local  territorial  freedom.  Therefore 
we  resolutely  oppose  and  rebel  against  the  popular 
plan,  which  is  to  cut  Russia  up  into  a  dozen  large 
self-governing  units  with  a  central  Parliament  at 
Petrograd.  This  would  mean  a  renewal  of  the 
Tsarist  despotism.  The  units  must  be  very  much 
smaller,  and  the  central  connection  must  be  very  much 
looser.  Territory  with  a  population  of  a  hundred 
thousand  is  large  enough  to  be  a  state  unit.  That  was 
probably  the  population  of  some  of  the  flourishing 
Greek  states  of  antiquity.  Kronstadt  has  sixty  thou- 
sand population;  and  if  every  town  or  district  in 
Russia  with  about  that  population  formed  its  own 
government  it  would  be  about  as  big  as  genuine 
democracy  could  stand.  However,  that  is  not  enough. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          6l 

We  reject  also  the  dominant  policy  of  centralization 
in  the  shape  of  an  All-Russian  Parliament.  The  local 
government  in  every  one  of  the  thousand  states  into 
which  Russia  must  be  divided  should  be  the  existing 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies,  such 
as  we  have  here.  Russia  needs  no  closer  organization 
for  these  than  a  Congress  at  Petrograd  representing 
all  the  local  Councils  of  Deputies.  It  needs  no  more 
organization.  That  will  be  the  future  Russia." 

"Is  that  meant  to  be  an  universal  doctrine  applying 
to  all  the  world  as  well  as  to  Russia?" 

"It  is.  It  is  an  universally  applicable  principle." 
At  this  Lamanoff's  eyes  flashed  in  a  way  that  left 
no  doubt  of  his  sincerity ;  but  he  proceeded  to  describe 
his  own  administration  in  a  way  that  did  not  indicate 
excessive  liberty.  Opening  his  desk  he  took  out  a 
proclamation,  and  said  "Look  at  that !"  The  proclama- 
tion was  headed  "To  All  Drunkards !"  and  it  declared 
that  any  person  found  intoxicated  within  the  limits  of 
Kronstadt  would  be  sent  without  trial  to  the  front. 
Lamanoff  boasted  to  me  of  the  good  order  in  his 
dominions,  order  which  contrasted  with  the  anarchy 
prevailing  in  such  parts  of  the  Empire  as  recognized 
the  Provisional  Government.  This  boast  was  justified. 
The  city  was  clean;  there  was  no  disorder  in  the 
streets;  and  storekeepers  and  others  whom  I  ques- 
tioned after  my  talk  with  the  boy  dictator  agreed  that 
they  felt  secure.  The  Anchor  Place's  incendiary  talk 
was  directed  not  so  much  against  local  property 


62         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

owners  as  against  the  "Capitalist  Government"  of 
Petrograd. 

Kronstadt's  worst  offense  was  the  condition  of  the 
prisons.  Weeks  before  the  revolt  against  Petrograd, 
newspapers  had  been  full  of  tales  of  prison  horrors 
alleged  to  be  very  much  worse  than  anything  known 
under  the  Autocracy.  The  victims  were  several 
hundred  army  and  navy  officers,  soldiers,  sailors  and 
civilians  who  had  been  spared  massacre  in  the  first 
days  of  the  Revolution,  and  had  been  thrown  into 
jail.  In  local  Bolshevik  opinion  these  men  were  guilty 
of  serious  offenses;  and  in  theory  they  were  awaiting 
trial.  But  Kronstadt  had  no  machinery  for  trying 
them;  and  the  Commission  of  Enquiry  sent  down  by 
Petrograd  had  only  awakened  suspicion  in  the  Anchor 
Place  extremists,  who  believed  that  everyone  officially 
connected  with  the  old  regime  should  be  punished. 
Persons  who  demanded  a  speedy  trial,  and  meantime 
decent  treatment,  for  the  prisoners  were  denounced 
in  violent  language  as  "counter-revolutionaries,"  and 
were  exposed  to  mob  violence;  and  in  some  cases — 
notably  that  of  Pereverseff,  the  Minister  of  Justice — 
barely  escaped  with  their  lives. 

In  this  matter  the  Council  of  Deputies  claimed  the 
authority  which  rightly  belonged  to  the  Ministry  of 
Justice.  The  Council,  on  which  sat  many  serious  and 
responsible  men,  wanted  to  end  the  scandal;  and  it 
appointed  its  own  Commission  of  Enquiry.  The 
Anchor  Place  rose  in  wrath,  besieged  the  Commission 
of  Enquiry  in  the  Naval  Club,  and  threatened  lynch- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          63 

ing.  So  menacing  was  the  mob  at  the  time  of  the 
secession  that  no  one  dared  to  intercede  publicly  for 
the  prisoners.  In  Petrograd  terrible  tales  of  ill-treat- 
ment, torture,  and  insult  continued  to  circulate.  In 
order  to  investigate  these  stories  I  resolved  to  get  into 
the  prisons  myself. 

A  day  before  this,  my  second  visit,  Kronstadt  made 
a  temporary  surrender  to  the  Provisional  Government, 
which  it  withdrew  a  few  days  later.  The  "republic's" 
last  act  was  to  give  me  a  permit  to  inspect  the  prisons. 
The  legislator  with  whom  I  dealt — a  certain  Gromoff 
— warned  me  that  I  should  see  very  terrible  things. 
Gromoff  was  a  remarkable  Revolution  type.  He  be- 
longed to  the  Mining  School,  and  was  aged  eighteen; 
and  beside  him  even  the  boy  dictator  looked  like  a 
graybeard.  He  wore  a  naval  uniform  and  sailor's  cap 
coquettishly  perched  far  back  on  his  head.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  influential  speakers  in  the  Council, 
and  an  active  member  of  the  executive  Committee. 
In  manner  he  was  entirely  cool,  self-possessed  and 
hard;  and  he  talked  to  the  admirals  and  generals  in 
the  jails  politely  but  in  quite  as  authoritative  a  tone 
as  an  admiral  or  general  would  have  spoken  to  him 
before  the  Revolution. 

We  visited  first  the  Naval  Preliminary  Prison  in 
the  remote  quarter  known  as  the  Petrograd  Suburb. 
This  was  the  chief  of  several  jails  for  "enemies  of 
the  Revolution."  The  Preliminary  Prison  was  a 
Chamber  of  Horrors,  which  could  hardly  have  been 
surpassed  under  the  Autocracy.  It  consisted  of  five 


64         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

so-called  "chambers,"  four  of  them  halls  into  which 
were  crowded  many  captives,  while  the  fifth  was  a 
long  row  of  solitary  cells,  formed  from  the  case- 
mates of  an  obsolete  fort.  The  first  chamber  was 
a  smallish,  vaulted,  whitewashed  and  well  lighted  but 
damp  room,  containing  fourteen  beds  and  one  small 
table  but  no  other  furniture.  There  were  no  washing 
utensils.  The  beds  were  a  foot  apart,  and  there  was 
no  room  for  the  prisoners  to  move  in.  The  prisoners, 
all  officers,  were  in  uniform;  but  their  sword-belts, 
shoulder-straps  and  badges  of  rank  had  been  torn 
off.  They  were  pale,  unshaven,  dirty  and  neglected. 
The  worst  terror  was  the  sleeping  accommodation. 
Before  the  Revolution  prisoners  had  been  supplied 
with  iron  beds  and  mattresses,  but  no  bedclothes;  but 
during  the  Revolution  the  mattresses  had  disappeared ; 
and  most  of  the  prisoners  had  lain  for  three  months 
on  the  iron  slats.  Three  or  four  beds  were  covered 
with  thin  layers  of  very  dirty  straw.  Some  of  the 
officers  slept  on  their  cloaks;  and  a  few  had  evil- 
smelling  rugs. 

In  this  room  was  Admiral  Sapsai,  one  of  the  higher 
commanders.  He  looked  ill;  and  complained  that  the 
food — the  ordinary  soldier's  payok — was  uneatable 
by  men  in  his  weak  state  of  health;  that  he  had  been 
sworn  at  by  the  guards;  and  was  sore  from  sleeping 
on  the  iron  slats.  But  the  chief  complaint  was  that 
he,  and  the  other  two  hundred  persons  in  this  prison, 
had  been  kept  for  three  months  without  any  charge 
being  preferred.  He  declared  that  all  the  other  cham- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          65 

bers  were  in  as  bad  a  condition  as  his;  and  this  I 
found  was  true.  The  fifth  chamber,  consisting  of 
solitary  confinement  cells,  was  much  worse.  Opening 
into  a  corridor  so  narrow  that  two  persons  could 
hardly  pass,  were  a  dozen  cells,  each  six  feet  square 
by  eight  high,  all  unventilated,  windowless,  and 
lighted  only  by  a  barred  slit  in  the  door.  The  dirt 
and  stench  were  unbearable.  When  I  arrived,  the 
doors  were  open,  and  the  prisoners  were  crowded  in 
the  corridor.  Here  was  Admiral  Kurosh,  a  little, 
yellow,  nervous  man  who  had  been  twice  wounded  in 
the  Japanese  War.  His  cell  contained  no  furniture 
except  the  usual  iron  bed,  on  the  slats  of  which  he 
had  long  slept.  Later,  he  had  received  from  outside 
a  rug  and  a  pillow,  but  he  had  still  no  mattress.  He 
complained  bitterly  both  of  his  treatment  and  of  his 
wrongful  detention.  He  had  heard  that  he  had  been 
vaguely  charged  with  oppressive  handling  of  the 
Kronstadt  sailors;  but  he  replied  that  he  had  taken 
over  his  command  only  four  days  before  the  Revolu- 
tion; and  that  the  Council's  own  Enquiry  Commission 
had  admitted  that  there  was  nothing  against  him. 
The  prisoners  in  the  adjacent  cells,  among  them  two 
colonels,  were  in  the  same  miserable  state,  the  only 
exception  being  a  captain  of  the  first  rank  named 
Almquist.  Almquist,  who  was  a  Swedish  Finn  in 
Russian  service,  had  been  released  by  the  Enquiry 
Commission.  When  he  was  embarking  for  Petrograd, 
a  raging  mob  rushed  to  the  quay,  and  threatened  a 
general  massacre  unless  he  was  brought  back  to  jail. 


66         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

After  two  months  of  solitary  confinement  he  was 
stout,  healthy  and  rosy,  and  made  a  sharp  contrast 
with  his  pale,  disspirited  neighbors.  "I  am  a  Finn, 
you  forget/*  he  said  when  I  expressed  surprise.  "I 
am  well  because  I  am  an  athlete." 

On  returning  to  Petrograd,  I  was  asked  by  Prince 
LvofF s  secretary  to  draw  up  a  report  on  the  condition 
of  the  prisons,  as  the  Government  had  itself  been 
unsuccessful  in  getting  first-hand  information.  This 
commission  I  fulfilled;  but  for  weeks  nothing  was 
done  for  the  captives;  and  the  extremists  continued 
to  threaten  murder  and  massacre  if  the  bourgeois 
Provisional  Government  intervened.  The  conflict 
over  this  matter,  and  over  the  other  extravagances 
of  Kronstadt,  continued  to  cause  trouble  to  the 
Provisional  Governments  until  the  final  catastrophe 
in  November.  The  Government  would  have  done 
better  had  it  faced  the  risk  boldly  and  resorted  to 
measures  of  coercion.  As  Kronstadt  is  purely  a  naval 
and  official  city  which  produces  no  necessaries  and 
lives  on  wages  drawn  from  the  capital,  it  could  have 
been  coerced  by  a  stoppage  of  the  sailors'  and  work- 
shops employees'  pay.  But  even  after  the  secession 
the  garrison  and  workmen  drew  government  money. 
The  dictator  Lamanoff  remained  in  power  until 
September,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  his  prede- 
cessor the  soldier  Liubovitch.  His  gospel  of  little 
states  ruled  by  Councils  of  Deputies  was  adopted  in 
a  few  centers  of  population,  and  for  months  after 
the  secession  we  heard  of  "republics"  springing  up 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  SOVIETS          67 

in  purely  Russian  territory.  The  Kronstadt  soldiers 
and  sailors  meantime  repeatedly  threatened  to  come 
to  Petrograd  and  overthrow  the  bourgeois  Cabinet. 
A  day  after  the  first  threat  loud  explosions  were 
heard  from  the  Gutuyeff  Port  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Neva;  and  the  capital  believed  that  Kronstadt  had 
really  come.  In  fact,  a  Kronstadt  ice-breaker  flying 
Bolshevik  flags  had  arrived  at  the  port  shortly  before 
the  explosion;  but  the  cause  of  the  explosion  was 
never  revealed.  Kronstadt  so  often  threatened  to 
march  on  Petrograd  and  so  often  failed  that  at  last 
citizens  ceased  to  pay  attention;  but  the  threat  was 
fulfilled  in  November  when  Bolshevik  units  from  the 
fortress  helped  in  overthrowing  the  Government  of 
Kerensky.  Therewith  the  "boy-dictator"  Lamanoff 
saw  his  dream  realized;  for  the  new  Bolshevik  Gov- 
ernment made  the  Soviets  the  chief  organs  of  local 
government;  and  Russia's  only  parliament  since  then 
has  been  a  central  council  of  delegates  from  the 
Soviets  in  the  provinces.  The  Lamanoff  doctrine, 
however,  has  not  been  realized  in  so  far  as  it  concerns 
local  independence.  True,  many  of  the  Soviets  are 
insisting  on  their  practical  independence  of  the  Lenine- 
Trotzky  Government;  but  this  Government  where  it 
has  power  is  firmly  opposing  such  local  independence 
as  an  obstacle  to  the  realization  of  Socialism  on 
homogeneous  lines  all  over  the  country. 


CHAPTER  V 

PRINCE  LVOFF  AND   HIS  REFORMS 

IT  is  a  common  belief  of  foreigners  unfamiliar  with 
Russia's  record  immediately  after  the  overthrow  of 
the  Tsardom  that  the  Revolution's  degeneration  into 
anarchy  was  unrelieved  by  any  hopeful  events.  This 
belief  is  natural,  because  the  post-revolutionary 
anarchy  obscured  everything  else,  but  it  is  mistaken. 
True,  serious  disorders  broke  out  in  Petrograd  in 
April;  and  after  that,  disorder  spread  rapidly  until 
it  culminated  in  the  organized  disorder  of  the  Bol- 
shevist regime.  This  aggravation  of  conditions  was 
never  even  temporarily  checked.  But  it  was  relieved 
by  many  creditable  achievements  and  attempts.  These 
were  the  reforms  and  initiated  reforms  of  the  first 
Provisional  Government.  In  a  few  weeks  this 
Government  completely  reconstructed  the  Empire's 
institutions  in  ultra-modern  way.  From  being  con- 
stitutionally behind  Turkey,  which  had  at  least  the 
fiction  of  Parliamentary  Government,  Russia  was 
suddenly  set  on  a  level  with,  and  in  some  important 
respects,  such  as  Feminism,  materially  ahead  of,  the 
United  States. 

68 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS      69 

Had  the  reformed  laws  and  administrative  system 
been  enforced,  Russia  would  to-day  be  the  world's 
most  advanced  country.  The  reasons  why  that  was 
not  attained  make  an  instructive  sermon  as  to  the 
insignificance  of  laws  and  institutions  compared  with 
national  temper  and  tradition.  Speaking  to  me  of 
this  in  July,  Prince  Lvoff  remarked  that  the  English 
Constitution  is  far  less  progressive  than  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  most  backward  South  American  republic. 
"But  what  is  given  to  the  people  by  a  Constitution," 
he  said,  "plays  a  small  role  compared  with  what  the 
people  give  to  the  Constitution."  This  remark  ex- 
plains well  why  the  new  and  highly  enlightened  paper 
reforms  framed  for  revolutionary  Russia  have  been 
of  less  than  no  avail. 

The  tradition  of  anarchy  and  license  inherited  from 
the  Tsardom  destroyed  everything  A  nation  whose 
only  experience  of  discipline  was  police  despotism 
inevitably  had  perverted  notions  of  the  very  nature 
of  discipline.  Old  Russia  rejected  voluntary  dis- 
cipline of  every  kind,  scholastic,  family,  religious. 
Before  the  Revolution  the  popular  conception  of  a 
good  citizen  was  a  rebel  against  restraints.  Because 
the  Autocracy  tyrannized  the  schools  for  political  aims, 
the  schoolboy  who  boxed  his  teacher's  ears  was  a  hero , 
and  because  the  Church  was  in  servile  subjection  to 
the  State,  also  for  political  ends,  any  moral  discipline 
that  was  based  on  religion  was  looked  on  as  super- 
stitious weakness.  After  the  Revolution  the  country 
got  free  government  on  paper,  but  it  could  not  so 


70         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

easily  get  the  temper  and  tradition  of  free  citizenship. 
Convinced  by  experience  of  the  Autocracy  that  all 
state  compulsion  was  corrupt  and  rotten,  it  would 
tolerate  no  compulsion  at  all.  Hence  from  the  first 
days  of  the  Revolution  there  was  an  orgy  of  what 
fthe  English  critic  Arnold  criticized  as  "doing  as  one 
likes."  The  country  had  despotic  anarchy  instead  of 
despotic  order;  instead  of  one  Tsar  there  were  thou- 
sands of  tsarlets;  and  instead  of  law-breaking 
bureaucrats  there  were  law-breaking  citizens.  The 
new  principle  was  doing  as  one  likes,  but  preventing 
others  from  doing  as  they  liked.  In  great  affairs  this 
system  reached  its  climax  when  the  carefully  prepared 
and  highly  democratic  Constituent  Assembly,  which 
the  extreme  Socialists  had  clamored  for  for  eight 
months,  was  dispersed  with  force  by  the  same  ex- 
tremists because  its  majority  was  unfavorable  to  them. 
Yet  steadily,  vainly  against  this  wave  of  national 
demoralization  for  a  time  stood  the  bulwark  of  legis- 
lative reforms  rushed  through  by  the  First  Provisional 
Government.  This  was  the  Provisional  Government 
of  Prince  Lvoff,  appointed  in  the  first  days  of  the 
Revolution  by  the  Temporary  Duma  Committee 
which  seized  power  on  the  actual  days  of  Revolt.  The 
first  Provisional  Government  was  not  a  coalition 
ministry;  but  was  composed  entirely  of  bourgeois, 
mostly  from  the  Constitutional-Democratic  and  allied 
parties,  with  the  single  exception  of  Kerensky,  a 
Socialist  of  the  Social-Revolutionary  camp.  Kerensky 
was  then  a  Vice-President  of  the  all-powerful  Pe- 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS      71 

trograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies ; 
and  his  inclusion  in  the  Cabinet  promised  to  provide 
a  useful  link  between  his  colleague  ministers  and  his 
colleagues  in  the  Soviet.  In  the  middle  of  May,  when 
the  disorders  which  originally  arose  as  protest  against 
the  Imperialistic  war-policy  proclaimed  by  the  Foreign 
Minister  Miliukoff  became  threatening,  Prince  Lvoff 
took  into  the  Cabinet  three  more  prominent  Socialist 
leaders,  Tseretelli,  Skobeleff  and  Tchernoff,  all  either 
moderate  Mensheviks  or  Social-Revolutionaries.  This 
was  the  first  of  several  coalition  cabinets.  The  Bol- 
sheviks, whose  slogan  was  "All  power  into  the  hands 
of  the  Councils  of  Deputies,"  stood  out.  The  head 
of  this  Cabinet  until  late  in  July  remained  Prince 
George  Lvoff,  who  had  led  in  the  Constitutionalist 
cause  for  many  years  before  the  Revolution,  and  who 
as  chief  of  the  Zemstvo  movement,  Russia's  first  ex- 
periment in  local  self-government,  had  practical  quali- 
fications for  governmental  work.  No  man  was  further 
from  the  tangle  of  rhetoric  and  generalities  which 
the  Constitutional-Democrats,  the  moderate  Socialists 
and,  of  course,  the  Bolsheviks  regarded  as  the  whole 
art  of  government. 

Had  the  Revolution  settled  down  quietly  under 
Lvoff's  practical  and  extremely  democratic  rule, 
Russia  would  be  spared  the  humiliation  and  anguish 
of  to-day.  For  Lvoff  was  not  only  a  great  and  tried 
Democrat;  he  was  also  a  great  patriot.  Though  him- 
self an  aristocrat  and  a  man  of  wealth,  he  was  ready 
to  go  to  great  lengths  to  meet  the  Socialistic  spirit 


72         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

of  the  workmen,  soldiers  and  peasants;  in  fact,  in 
forming  his  first  coalition  cabinet  he  did  go  far ;  but 
he  would  not  consent  to  betray  Russia  in  her  conflict 
with  Germany ;  and,  being  a  far  better  internationalist 
than  the  noisy  Bolsheviks,  he  believed  that  the  world- 
problems  now  awaiting  settlement  would  be  settled 
satisfactorily  only  if  Russia  fought  with  the  Allies 
for  a  satisfactory  peace.  Even  in  this  he  showed 
a  spirit  of  compromise.  When  compelled  by  the 
genuine  pressure  of  public  opinion,  he  accepted  the 
Socialist  policy:  "no  annexations  and  no  indemnities." 
But  he  understood  this  to  mean  that  Russia's  foes  also 
should  not  annex  or  exact  indemnities. 

Outside  Russia  the  period  of  government  of  Prince 
Lvoff  has  almost  passed  from  memory;  but  that  is 
only  because  the  events  most  vital  and  exciting  for 
Russia's  allies  took  place  after  Lvoff's  successor, 
Kerensky,  took  office.  But  from  the  viewpoint  of  revo- 
lutionary achievements,  the  Lvoff  period  was  incom- 
parably more  important  than  the  Kerensky.  Kerensky 
achieved  nothing.  It  was  under  Lvoff,  and  not  under 
Kerensky  that  the  country  realized  its  immemorial 
aspiration  after  liberty,  after  equality  of  all  races  and 
classes,  and  after  an  ordered  and  modern  system  of 
government.  If  these  were  only  paper  reforms,  that 
was  not  Lvoff's  fault;  he  fell  before  most  of  them 
could  be  put  into  effect;  and  his  successor  Kerensky 
led  them  slide  until  the  ultimate  authorities,  Lenine 
and  Trotsky,  wiped  them  entirely  off  the  slate. 

I  first  met  Prince  Lvoff  early  in  April  immediately 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS       73 

after  the  United  States  entered  the  War.  I  saw  a 
middle-sized,  slight  man  with  a  pale  face,  black  hair, 
beard  and  eyes,  and  an  extremely  worried  expression, 
the  result  of  persistent  overwork.  He  spoke  French, 
but  no  English;  and  our  conversations  were  in  his 
own  language.  The  first  serious  disorders  of  the 
Revolution  had  not  yet  occurred;  and  he  was  in  good 
spirits  over  Russia's  future  and  in  particular  over 
America's  intervention.  He  asked  me  to  cable  to 
New  York  expressing  his  certain  conviction  that  the 
Allies,  now  assisted  by  America,  would  win  the  War ; 
and  he  added  that  America's  participation  was  a 
pledge  that  all  the  disputed  world-problems  would  be 
solved  in  a  spirit  of  justice.  "The  war,"  he  said,  "is 
itself  a  world-problem;  and  it  could  not  have  been 
settled  satisfactorily  upon  a  purely  European  basis. 
America  will  help  us  to  achieve  this."  Russia,  he 
prophesied,  would  continue  in  the  War  till  the  end. 
The  soldiers  at  the  front,  freed  from  the  despotism 
of  the  Tsar,  would  do  their  duty  consciously,  and 
better  than  before.  Optimism  of  this  kind  inspired 
Lvoff  from  beginning  to  end.  When  I  saw  him  for 
the  last  time  in  July,  a  few  days  before  his  enforced 
resignation,  he  declared  that  conditions  were  moving 
towards  the  re-establishment  of  order,  that  the  Army 
would  recover  and  would  co-operate  in  winning  the 
War. 

The  great  legislative  and  administrative  reforms  of 
the  Lvoff  Cabinet  were  carried  out  without  difficulty, 
without  opposition,  even  without  criticism.  Never 


74         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

before  in  history  were  such  unanimous  changes  carried 
through  with  such  apparent  ease.  The  reason  is  to 
be  sought  in  Russia's  history  in  the  preceding  decades. 
Practically  every  Russian  knew  what  his  country 
wanted ;  the  necessary  reforms,  all  of  them  based  upon 
precedents  from  the  more  advanced  countries  of 
West  Europe,  had  been  considered  and  debated 
thoroughly;  and  before  the  first  Duma  met  in  May, 

1906,  the  Bills  which  the  progressive  majority  hoped 
to,  but  did  not,  pass  were  already  drawn  up.     The 
chief  liberationist  aspiration  was  comprehended  in  the 
phrase  "the  Five  Freedoms" — Plat  svobod — freedom 
of  the  Person,  of  Speech,  of  Association,  of  Religion 
and  of  the  Press.    The  Five  Freedoms  were  regarded 
as  Russia's  Bill  of  Rights.     Bills  enacting  such  free- 
doms  and  many  more   Bills  on  detail  questions  of 
government  had  been  introduced  into  the  four  succes- 
sive Dumas;  but  all  were  defeated  or  mutilated  as 
result  of  the  triumph  of  the  Reaction  which  began  in 

1907.  In  this  destructive  work,  the  Upper  Chamber 
— the    half -elected,    half -nominated    Council    of    the 
Empire — played  a  prominent  role.     On  the  eve  of  the 
Revolution  all  reforms  seemed  buried  beyond  resus- 
citation.    With  the  Revolution  nothing  was  needed 
except  to  re-inter  them,  and  proclaim  them  as  laws, 
sometimes  with  progressive  amendments  in  directions 
impossible  before.     One  such  direction  was  Feminism 
in  which  revolutionary  Russia  led  the  world. 

Prince    Lvoff    effected    this    by    purely    autocratic 
procedure.    The  Duma  and  the  Council  of  the  Empire 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS       75 

had  ceased  to  meet.  The  Socialist  parties  from  the 
first  sharply  attacked  the  Duma,  and  demanded  its 
abolition.  This  was  not  formally  attained  until  after 
the  Bolshevik  coup  d'etat;  but  after  the  March 
Revolution  the  Duma  never  met  in  its  official  capacity. 
The  Socialist  demand  was  defensible  because  the 
Third  and  Fourth  Dumas  were  elected  on  a  franchise 
proclaimed  without  consulting  the  Legislature  by 
Nicholas  II  in  June,  1907,  in  violation  of  the  new 
Fundamental  Law  of  1906  wherein  the  Tsars  re- 
linquished their  prerogative  of  legislating  alone  on 
franchise  matters.  In  default  of  Duma,  Prince  Lvoff 
had  no  legislative  machinery.  The  new  reform  laws, 
as  far  as  they  were  not  already  prepared,  were  drawn 
up  by  experts,  submitted  for  examination  to  a 
Juridical  Commission  which,  under  presidency  of  the 
Duma  member  Kokoshkin,  sat  in  the  Mariinsky 
Palace,  and  then  promulgated.  This  procedure  ex- 
plains the  great  speed  with  which  the  Revolution's 
reforms  were  carried  through. 

The  reversal  of  old  Russian  legislation  was  com- 
plete. All  the  old  laws  and  administrative  practises 
restricting  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  were  revoked. 
The  judicial  authorities — there  were  now  no  police 
but  only  ununi  formed  militiamen/  mostly  students — 
lost  their  right  to  arrest  at  will.  Instead  of  lying 
in  jail  untried  for  months  or  years,  arrested  citizens 
of  revolutionary  Russia  must  be  brought  before  an 
examining  magistrate  within  twenty-four  hours;  and 
if  that  were  not  done  they  were  to  be  immediately 


76         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

released.  "Administrative  justice"  was  abolished. 
Administrative  justice  was  the  complex  system,  based 
on  hundreds  of  so-called  "compulsory  ordinances," 
under  which  the  Autocracy's  local  governors  fined, 
imprisoned  and  exiled  without  trial.  The  newspaper 
and  book  Press  was  relieved  of  all  censorship  and 
the  same  freedom  was  given  to  theaters  and  public 
meetings.  No  person  was  henceforth  to  be  punished 
for  Press  or  Speech  offenses  unless  the  offenses 
violated  the  ordinary  criminal  law,  and  unless  a  con- 
viction proving  violation  was  obtained  from  a  jury. 
The  new  legislation  provided  guarantees  against  a 
revival  of  the  system  of  espionage  practised  by  the 
Okhraiw.  Violation  of  the  secrecy  of  written  cor- 
respondence and  of  the  telegraph  and  telephone  was 
henceforth  a  punishable  offense.  A  victim  of  a  breach 
of  this  new  law  could  not  only  have  the  offender  pun- 
ished but  could  also  get  damages  against  him.  Under 
the  old  government  officials  were  so  privileged  that  it 
was  practically  impossible  to  get  redress  against  them. 
Before  prosecuting  an  official  it  was  necessary  to  get 
his  superior's  consent.  In  practise  no  official  who  was 
known  to  have  reactionary  views  or  who  was  well 
protected  could  be  punished  for  any  offense.  The 
Lvoff  Cabinet  reformed  the  Courts  of  Administration 
in  such  a  way  that  officials  were  placed  in  exactly  the 
same  position  as  private  citizens  in  regard  to  their 
duties  and  rights.  The  Bill  regulating  this  went  even 
farther  than  is  customary  in  progressive  countries,  for 
it  declared  that  officials  might  be  prosecuted  and 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS      77j 

punished  for  no  worse  offense  than  too  dilatory 
procedure,  if  from  such  procedure  a  citizen  suffered 
harm.  Thus,  probably  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
was  the  universal  official  disease,  red-tape,  turned  into 
a  crime. 

The  equalizing  of  races  and  religions  was  complete. 
The  walls  of  Petrograd  were  suddenly  covered  with 
posters  in  Yiddish,  Polish,  Little-Russian,  Lettish, 
Tartar  and  Esthonian,  languages  which  were  formerly 
never  seen  outside  the  districts  where  they  were 
native,  and  even  there  sometimes  used  only  in  private. 
The  system  of  religious  persecution  practised  by 
nearly  all  the  Romanoffs  and  aggravated  by  Alexander 
III  and  Nicholas  II  disappeared  in  a  night.  By  one 
of  the  first  reform  measures,  was  abolished  the  "Pale 
of  Settlement"  law,  under  which  seven  million  Jews 
were  confined  to  towns  in  a  small  expanse  of  territory 
in  Poland  and  Western  Russia.  The  Autocracy's 
Anti-Semites  had  predicted  that  if  this  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment was  abolished,  the  released  Jews  would  flood 
the  whole  Empire  and  seize  all  business.  This  did 
not  happen.  A  few  Jews  changed  their  place  of 
abode ;  but  the  dreaded  domination  over  the  less  active 
Christian  Russians  never  materialized,  though  Jews 
did  play  a  considerable  role  in  directing  the  higher 
affairs  of  the  Revolution,  which  is  natural  enough  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  they  had  been  the  pioneers  of 
opposition  to  the  Autocracy. 

All  religions  were  given  equal  rights.  Under  the 
Autocracy,  missionaries  of  the  dominant  Greek 


78         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Orthodox  church  were  encouraged  to  convert  mem- 
bers of  other  religious  communities  to  the  State 
religion;  but  it  was  a  crime  to  convert  Orthodox:  be- 
lievers to  any  other  religion.  All  religions  in  this 
respect  were  now  equal.  In  the  extreme  Left  there 
was  a  wide  demand  also  for  disestablishment  of  the 
Orthodox  Church,  but  this  question  was  left  for  settle- 
ment to  the  great  Church  Congress,  which  was  to 
meet  in  Moscow  in  August.  The  dominant  opinion 
among  clerics  was  that  the  Church  should  be  com- 
pletely independent  of  the  State;  but  that  the  State 
should  continue  to  guarantee  the  salaries  of  bishops 
and  priests.  In  fact,  this  was  realized,  and  it  existed 
until  the  revolt  of  the  Bolsheviks  who  confiscated  all 
church  and  monastery  property,  and  severed  the 
Church  entirely  from  the  State.  But  this — reform 
or  reaction,  whichever  it  was — like  all  other  measures, 
remained  in  part  a  paper  measure  and  the  monks  and 
priests  still  keep  possession  of  much  of  the  Church 
property. 

The  Revolution  radically  reformed  the  system  of 
justice.  The  most  important  reform  was  the  making 
of  judges  irremovable,  a  system  recognized  in  prin- 
ciple by  the  Autocracy  but  ignored  in  fact.  The  local 
courts  were  made  elective,  trial  by  jury  became  the 
universal  rule  instead  of  the  exception,  and  women 
acquired  the  right  of  sitting  upon  juries  and  of  acting 
as  magistrates.  Under  the  influence  of  the  Council 
of  Deputies,  the  Government  went  farther  in  reform- 
ing military  jurisdiction  than  was  wise — this  was 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS       79 

part  of  the  universal  disruption  of  authority  in  the 
Arny.  Offenses  of  non-military  character  by  sol- 
diers were  no  longer  to  be  tried  by  courts-martial. 
The  superior  rights  of  officers  in  purely  military  trials 
were  abolished,  by  providing  that  soldiers  accused  of 
military  offenses  should  be  tried  by  juries  consisting 
of  an  equal  number  ot  officers  and  men.  and  the  jury, 
which  the  men  were  bound  to  dominate,  not  only 
determined  the  accused's  guilt  01  innocence,  but 
decided,  together  with  the  judge,  the  measure  of 
punishment.  This  reform  went  farther  than  was 
intended;  for  when  the  first  soldier-offenders  were 
arrested,  their  comrades  either  demanded  their  imme- 
diate release,  or  formed  juries  which  in  violation  of 
the  new  law  consisted  exclusively  of  soldiers;  and 
when  the  offense  was  committed  against  an  officer,  the 
culprit  was  invariably  acquitted. 

The  Lvoff  Government  radically  reformed  local 
administration  and  local  self-government.  Instead  of 
the  former  governors  of  provinces,  local  tsarlets  who 
interfered  unchecked  with  the  municipalities  and 
Zemstvo  councils,  were  appointed  Commissaries. 
These  commissaries  had  very  little  power  on  paper, 
and  no  power  at  all  in  fact,  as  against  the  new  un- 
official Councils  of  Deputies.  Municipal  self-govern- 
ment was  reformed  by  abolishing  entirely  the  property 
franchise,  and  giving  all  adults,  men,  or  women,  an 
equal  vote.  This  produced  a  tremendous  change  in 
Petrograd,  where  the  municipality  had  been  entirely 
controlled  by  a  handful  of  rich  houseowners.  The 


80         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

/ 

city  administration  was  decentralized  by  creating 
subordinate  municipal  councils.  The  same  policy  was 
pursued  in  regard  to  the  Zemstvos,  or  provincial 
councils.  These  councils  were  created  by  the  Tsar 
Alexander  II  during  his  brief  fit  of  Liberalism  in 
the  sixties;  but  many  provinces  were  left  without 
them;  and  those  provinces  which  had  them  benefited 
relatively  little,  owing  to  the  despotic  interference  of 
the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  and  his  local  instruments, 
the  governors.  Now  the  Zemstvos  were  opened  to 
persons  of  both  sexes  and  to  all  classes,  and  a  new 
form  of  subordinate  Zemstvo  was  created.  This  last 
reform  was  important.  Before  the  revolution,  the 
smallest  unit  of  local  self-government  in  which  all 
classes  were  represented  was  the  "District  Zemstvo." 
This  governed  much  too  large  a  district.  The  com- 
munal and  cantonal  administrations,  which  directed 
the  affairs  of  smaller  territorial  units,  were  purely 
peasant  bodies,  which  had  no  authority  over  the 
privileged  classes;  and  this  perpetuated  the  division 
of  Russia  into  sharply  defined  classes.  By  creating 
a  new  type  of  cantonal  Zemstvo  in  which  all  classes 
co-operated  equally,  the  Lvoff  Government  met  a 
popular  demand.  The  "Little  Zemstvo  Unit"  was 
one  of  the  important  reforms  of  the  Revolution.  All 
the  new  or  reformed  local-governing  bodies  were 
given  very  wide  powers  and  were  guaranteed  against 
outside  bureaucratic  interference.  One  such  guarantee 
was  the  transfer  of  the  town  militias,  which  had 
replaced  the  police  and  gendarmery,  into  municipal 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS      81 

control.  Henceforth  no  Government  could  use  the 
police  for  its  own  political  ends. 

The  Lvoff  Government  did  much  to  encourage 
Education.  A  new  university  was  founded  at  Perm 
near  the  Siberian  frontier;  plans  were  prepared  for 
the  foundation  of  other  universities  and  high  schools; 
the  secondary  school  educational  system  was  enlarged ; 
and  the  Government  entered  on  plans  for  universal 
Elementary  Education.  Again,  these  reforms  met 
with  no  opposition ;  but  partly  owing  to  lack  of  money, 
partly  owing  to  growing  anarchy,  the  plans  came  to 
naught. 

The  same  was  the  fate  of  the  greatest  legislative 
enterprise  of  the  Lvoff  Government,  an  enterprise 
which  occupied  a  Commission  for  several  months,  and 
unlike  the  other  reforms  provoked  some  controversy. 
This  was  the  law  providing  for  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly. After  the  Revolution  Russia  had  no  Con- 
stitution. Her  new  Government  was  administering 
and  legislating  autocratically;  and,  though  un- 
doubtedly supported  by  the  masses,  it  had  no  formal 
mandate  to  which  it  could  point  when  challenged. 
Prince  Lvoff  felt  this  defect  very  much.  He  told  me 
that  he  was  waiting  impatiently  for  the  meeting  of 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  which  as  the  unchallenged 
voice  of  all  the  Empire,  could  confer  constitutional 
authority  upon  the  government.  Such  a  legal  govern- 
ment would  be  in  a  stronger  position  than  his  own, 
for  where  necessary  it  could  apply  methods  of  coer- 
cion, and  justify  its  acts  with  the  will  of  the  people. 


82         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Enormous  industry  was  shown  in  preparing  for  the 
Assembly,  and  planning  its  program  of  work.  The 
main  item  of  this  program  was  to  draw  up  a  Con- 
stitution, but  this  meant  first  solving  the  nationalities 
problem  on  a  basis  of  Home  Rule,  Federation,  or 
Independence.  The  peasants,  backed  by  the  city 
Socialists,  demanded  that  the  Assembly  should  also 
act  as  a  legislative  assembly  on  the  question  of  the 
ownership  of  land.  This  point  was  carried.  The 
Constituent  Assembly  law  was  finally  promulgated, 
on  the  same  basis  of  equality  which  had  been  adopted 
in  matters  of  local  self-government.  Women  were 
to  vote  and  be  elected  equally  with  men  among  the 
eight  hundred  members.  But  this  also  remained  a 
paper  project.  Extremists  of  different  kinds  robbed 
the  Assembly  of  its  rights  in  advance;  and  then  killed 
the  Assembly  itself.  The  first  blow  was  the  declara- 
tion of  a  Republic.  It  was  understood  from  the  first 
that  only  a  Constitutent  Assembly  elected  directly  by 
the  whole  people  could  declare  the  future  form  of 
government.  In  fact  there  were  practically  no 
monarchists  in  the  country.  The  Socialists  of 
different  groups,  making  certainly  seven-eighths  of  the 
people,  had  all  declared  for  a  republic ;  and  the  middle- 
class  Constitutional  Democrats  after  first  declaring 
for  a  democratic  monarchy  themselves  went  over  to 
Republicanism.  But  after  the  rebellion  of  General 
Korniloff  in  September,  the  Left  parties  got  into  a 
panic  on  the  score  of  the  alleged  counter-revolutionary 
aspirations  of  the  bourgeoisie;  they  assumed  that 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS       83 

the  counter-revolutionists  were  monarchists;  and  they 
insisted  that  Kerensky  should  forestall  a  monarchist 
attempt  by  declaring  a  republic  without  waiting  for 
the  Constituent  Assembly.  Kerensky,  as  always  when 
threatened,  gave  way,  and  though  himself  entirely 
without  any  mandate  from  the  people,  and  without 
any  position  whatever  in  constitutional  law,  he  took 
on  himself  to  proclaim  a  republic.  So  for  the  first 
time  was  laid  down  the  vicious  principle  that  Russia's 
future  was  to  be  directed  not  by  the  people  but  by 
any  non-elected  partisan  who  could  control  a  certain 
number  of  disorderly  soldiers.  For  a  second  time 
this  principle  was  put  into  practise  when  Prince 
Lvoff's  great  achievement,  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
met  in  December.  This  was  after  the  seizure  of 
power  by  the  Bolsheviks.  The  Constituent  Assembly 
showed  a  considerable  majority,  composed  mainly 
of  Social-Revolutionaries  and  moderate  Socialists, 
against  the  Bolsheviks.  The  Bolsheviks  commanded 
less  than  a  third  of  the  votes.  The  Bolshevik  gov- 
ernment of  Peoples'  Commissaries  thereupon  dis- 
persed the  Assembly.  Since  that  time  Autocracy  has 
been  replaced  not  by  Democracy,  but  by  an  oligarchy 
based  solely  upon  military  force.  The  government 
of  the  country  by  Soviets  automatically  superseded 
many  of  the  Lvoff  reforms;  and  the  others  were 
simply  let  fall  into  desuetude. 

Prince  Lvoff  resigned  office  on  the  i8th  of  July 
as  result  of  violent  demonstrations  by  soldiers  in  the 
Nevsky  Prospect  which  caused  a  number  of  deaths. 


84         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

This  outbreak  was  only  the  last  and  worst  of  several 
of  similar  kind  organized  by  Lenine  and  Trotsky 
since  April.  Foi  not  suppressing  these  outbreaks  and 
punishing  the  ringleaders,  Lvoff  was  accused  of  weak- 
ness, as  Kerensky  after  him  was  accused.  The  accusa- 
tion was  untrue.  The  position  of  Lvoff  differed 
markedly  from  that  of  Kerensky.  Lvoff,  as  he 
recognized,  came  into  power  without  any  mandate 
from  the  people  at  a  time  when  it  was  hoped  the 
Revolution  would  develop  peacefully  without  any  need 
for  coercion.  When  growing  disorder  proved  that 
coercion  could  not  be  dispensed  with,  Lvoff  left  office ; 
and  Kerensky  succeeded  him  with  an  avowed 
program  of  war  upon  the  Bolsheviks  in  so  far  as  they 
practised  violence.  But  beyond  making  a  few  arrests, 
the  weak  Kerensky  never  carried  out  this  program. 
He  would  not  accept  the  logic  of  the  situation  that 
he  was  at  the  top  of  a  Revolution  based  on  force 
and  must  rule  by  revolutionary  means;  and  he  would 
not  give  way  to  resolute  men  like  Savinkoff  and 
Korniloff  who  would  have  made  the  attempt.  Lvoff's 
position  was  made  impossible  by  the  ambiguous  policy 
of  the  omnipotent  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies. 
The  Bolshevik  minority  in  this  Council  consistently 
demanded  that  into  the  Council's  hands  should  go 
all  power.  The  Menshevik  majority,  led  by  the 
moderate  Socialists,  Cheidze,  President  of  the  Council, 
and  Tseretelli,  obstinately  refused  to  take  power,  but 
at  the  same  time  they  meddled  and  placed  obstacles 
in  Lvoff's  path;  and  while  condemning  Bolshevik  dis- 


PRINCE  LVOFF  AND  HIS  REFORMS       85 

order  never  showed  willingness  to  take  firm  military 
measures  against  the  Bolshevik  intriguers.  This  sys- 
tem made  all  stable  government  impossible. 

The  other  disturbing  influence  against  the  Lvoff 
Government  was  the  international  situation.  The 
first  serious  revolt  of  the  Bolshevik  soldiers  in 
Petrograd's  garrison  was  directed  against  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  Prof.  P.  Miliukoff,  long  leader 
of  the  Constitutional-Democratic  party.  If  the  ruin 
of  Russia — the  result  of  many  complex  factors — 
could  be  ascribed  to  any  one  individual,  probably 
Miliukoff  would  be  chosen  as  that  individual  by  an 
impartial  judge.  Miliukoff's  political  career  has  dis- 
played practically  all  the  characteristic  defects  of  the 
Russian  "Intelligentsiya"  without  most  of  their 
merits  A  man  of  considerable  talents  as  writer  and 
historian,  he  totally  lacked  political  qualities.  He  also 
lacked  foresight,  and  even  ordinary  tact.  He  was 
largely  responsible  for  the  wrecking  of  the  Revolution 
of  1905-6.  It  was  the  Vyborg  Demonstration,  his 
chief  achievement  in  those  days,  which  gave  the 
reactionary  Prime  Minister  Peter  Stolypin  the  weapon 
he  wanted  most  for  the  crushing  of  Reform.  After 
the  premature  dissolution  of  the  first  revolutionary 
Duma,  Miliukoff  induced  forty  deputies  to  issue  from 
Vyborg  in  Finland  a  solemn  protest  against  payment 
of  taxes  or  the  rendering  of  army  conscripts  until 
the  Duma  was  reconvoked.  The  demonstration  was 
a  ridiculous  fiasco;  the  signatories  meekly  paid  their 
own  taxes;  and  forty  of  them — not  including 


86         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Miliukoff — got  into  jail.  When  the  new  Revolution 
came  Miliukoff  misunderstood  its  international  im- 
port. The  Russian  Army  though  exhausted  might 
possibly  have  continued  to  fight  for  national  defense; 
but  it  was  determined — and  all  knew  it — not  to  fight 
for  aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of  non-Russian 
nations.  When  Miliukoff  proclaimed  publicly  that 
the  soldiers,  in  the  hands  of  whom  now  lay  the  only 
real  power,  must  fight  for  the  possession  of  Con- 
stantinople he  provoked  a  storm  which  surprised  no 
one  but  himself.  The  sound  policy  of  revolutionary 
Russia,  the  only  policy  which  would  have  satisfied 
Russia's  allies  without  incensing  her  war-exhausted 
soldiery  was  to  proclaim  for  the  Council  of  Deputies' 
plan  of  no  annexations  and  no  indemnities,  and  to 
declare  that  Russia  would  fight  beside  the  Allies  to 
prevent  the  Central  Powers  violating  that  principle. 
The  policy  of  no  annexations  or  indemnities  was  in 
the  end  accepted  by  the  Provisional  Government;  but 
the  injury  had  been  done;  the  Miliukoff  indiscretions 
had  given  color  to  the  Bolshevik  argument  that  the 
bourgeoisie  in  defense  of  its  predatory  interests  was 
sending  the  proletariat  to  be  massacred.  Thereby 
the  fall  of  Prince  Lvoff  and  the  later  fall  of  Kerensky 
were  predetermined;  and  Lvoff's  great  reform  work, 
the  fundamental  reconstruction  of  Russia  as  a  modern 
state,  was  brought  to  naught. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

A  WEEK  after  Nicholas  II's  deposition,  was  held 
the  most  impressive  and  significant  ceremony  of  the 
Revolution.  The  scene  was  the  magnificently 
decorated  and  upholstered  Imperial  suite  at  the 
Nicholas  railroad  station  in  Petrograd.  Before  the 
Revolution,  this  Imperial  suite  was  sacred;  the  rooms 
were  jealously  locked,  being  opened  only  when  the 
Tsar,  the  Tsaritsa,  or  some  foreign  imperial  or  royal 
guest  entered  or  left  the  capital.  A  suggestion  that 
the  rooms  should  be  opened  in  honor  of  a  revolu- 
tionary convict  would  have  made  any  member  of  the 
old  Court  faint.  Yet  this  was  the  ceremony.  In  the 
chief  room,  decorated  with  red  tulips,  emblematic  of 
Revolution,  the  surviving  heroines  of  the  Terrorist 
movement  had  assembled  to  welcome  the  return  from 
Siberia  of  the  venerable  Catherine  Breschko- 
Breschkovsky,  who  of  her  seventy-four  years  of  life 
had  spent  nearly  fifty  in  prison,  in  Siberian  exile,  or 
under  supervision  of  the  political  police.  Of  these 
champions  of  liberation,  the  chief  were  women.  The 
most  notable  among  them  were  the  Terrorist  Vera 
Zasulitch,  who  forty  years  before,  then  a  slight  girl, 

87 


88         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

shot  General  Trepoff,  the  despotic  chief  of  the 
Petrograd  police;  and  Vera  Figner  who,  betrayed  by 
a  false  accomplice,  spent  twenty-two  years  in 
Schliisselburg  Fortress  as  punishment  for  her  work 
as  member  of  "The  People's  Will"  league,  and  who 
now  with  her  sharp  features  and  strong  expression 
under  an  enormous  fur  cap,  looked  like  the  traditional 
Nihilist  princess  of  sensational  romance. 

The  Revolution  was  made  by  women,  more  than 
by  men.  Turgenieff  in  his  novel  Virgin  Soil  con- 
trasted his  devoted  and  competent  heroine  Marianna 
with  his  instable,  idealistic  hero;  and  in  real  life 
women  like  Breschkovsky,  Figner,  Zasulitch  and 
Sophie  Perovsky  led  among  the  sufferers  for  Russian 
freedom,  and  surpassed  in  steady  devotion  and  self- 
sacrifice  the  often  emotional  and  vacillating  men. 
Now,  with  the  Revolution  accomplished,  women  were 
to  reap  their  reward. 

It  is  characteristic  of  Russia  that  the  complete 
emancipation  of  women  carried  through  by  the 
Revolution  provoked  no  opposition.  Before  the 
Revolution  liberty  of  thought  was  as  complete  as 
liberty  to  express  thought  publicly  was  limited.  The 
outer  despotism  had  its  natural  reaction  in  internal 
radicalism;  and  as  result  the  equality  of  women  in  all 
matters  was  more  generally  accepted  in  Russian 
society  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  Yet  in 
the  villages,  and  in  relation  to  the  State,  the  posi- 
tion of  women  remained  low.  The  muzhik  beat  his 
wife  because,  as  his  proverb  said,  "women  and  horses 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  89 

have  no  souls" ;  and  educated  women  could  not  travel 
without  their  husbands'  permission  because  they  were 
refused  separate  passports.  Starting  so  far  behind, 
Russia  suddenly  found  herself  ahead  of  Norway  and 
Denmark  where  complete  female  suffrage  has  existed 
for  some  years. 

The  country  was  well  prepared  for  this  change. 
It  assumed  that  when  liberation  came  it  would  be 
universal;  and  people  were  in  no  mood  to  discuss 
limitations,  whether  of  race,  religion  or  sex,  upon  the 
exercise  of  citizenship.  The  complete  emancipation 
and  enfranchisement  of  women  were  therefore  carried 
through  almost  without  comment  by  the  relatively 
Conservative  government  of  Prince  Lvoff.  In  the 
universal  remolding  of  institutions,  this  was  compara- 
tively easy.  As  men  had  no  rights,  or  only  very 
limited  rights,  institutions  had  to  be  re-created  from 
the  bottom ;  and  the  admission  of  women,  so  far  from 
being  a  revolution  in  itself,  was  only  a  part  of  the 
general  great  change.  The  question  of  women's  right 
to  vote  for  a  central  legislature  did  not  arise,  because 
the  existing  central  legislature — the  Duma,  and  the 
Council  of  the  Empire — had  ceased  to  function  and 
practically  ceased  to  exist ;  and  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly which  was  to  provide  for  a  new  central  legis- 
lature, had  not  met.  But  in  voting  for  the  members 
of  this  Constituent  Assembly — the  most  august  body 
of  Russia  which  was  to  frame  a  Constitution  and 
to  settle  the  complicated  National  and  Land  questions 
— women  were  given  equal  rights  with  men;  and  had 


90         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

the  assembly  been  allowed  to  sit  and  frame  a  con- 
stitution instead  of  being  dissolved  by  force  by  the 
triumphant  Bolsheviks,  it  was  part  of  the  program 
to  give  women  an  equal  right  with  men  to  vote 
for  and  to  sit  in  the  new  permanent  legislature. 

Within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Revolution,  women 
were  voting  and  sitting  in  the  municipalities  and  the 
provincial  councils.  There  was  no  office  in  the  state 
which  a  woman  might  not  hold.  All  the  professions 
were  opened.  In  this  matter,  before  the  Revolution 
Russia  was  well- advanced.  There  were  many  women 
doctors  and  dentists,  some  women  lawyers,  who  how- 
ever had  only  qualified  rights,  and  a  new  school  of 
women  architects,  engineers,  and  technologists.  How 
much  farther  the  Revolution  pushed  Feminism  may 
be  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  the  reformed  lower 
courts,  which  were  to  be  reconstructed  on  electoral 
principles,  even  illiterate  women  who  could  not  sign 
their  names  had  a  right  to  sit  as  assessors  beside  the 
chief  magistrate. 

Women  accepted  this  emancipation  in  the  right 
spirit.  They  had  no  part  in  the  indiscipline  which 
wrecked  the  Revolution;  they  voted,  it  was  generally 
admitted,  intelligently  and  for  disinterested  motives; 
and  when  elected  to  any  of  the  public  self-governing 
bodies  they  showed  moderation  and  good  sense. 
Could  that  be  said  also  of  men?  Russia  in  this  respect 
had  the  same  experience  as  Finland,  where  women 
have  had  the  vote  since  1906,  and  where  on  the  whole 
they  have  exercised  their  right  moderately  and  wisely. 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  91 

The  Revolution  yielded  to  Europe  its  first  Woman 
Minister.  This  was  the  brilliant  Countess  Sophie 
Panin.  The  Countess  Panin  was  a  very  wealthy 
lady  of  aristocratic  family,  who  inhabited  a  palace 
on  the  Sergievsky  Street.  She  was  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Democratic  party;  and 
years  ago  built  in  Petrograd  at  her  own  cost  the  first 
privately  founded  People's  Palace,  with  a  theater  and 
restaurant  for  working  men.  When  the  Cabinet  of 
Prince  Lvoff  was  reconstructed  on  coalition  principles, 
the  Countess  was  offered  the  position  of  Assistant 
Minister  of  Public  Welfare,  and  this  position  she 
took,  appearing  for  inauguration  in  a  rough  leather 
blouse.  She  told  me  her  plans.  Her  department  was 
an  entirely  new  one ;  and  in  organizing  it,  she  intended 
to  employ  chiefly  women.  Like  most  Revolution 
plans,  this  was  doomed  to  failure.  The  Countess  was 
obliged  to  resign;  and  after  the  Bolshevik  Revolution 
of  the  autumn  she  was  put  on  trial  because  she  refused 
to  recognize  Lenine  and  Trotsky  by  handing  over  to 
them  public  money  of  which  she  was  in  charge.  The 
trial  was  a  public  scandal.  In  spite  of  the  universal 
veneration  in  which  she  was  held  and  testimony  to 
her  sound  Revolutionary  principles  given  by  working- 
men  witnesses,  the  Countess  was  convicted  and  sen- 
tenced. The  Bolsheviks,  who  in  many  things  re- 
sembled the  satraps  of  Nicholas  II,  resembled  them 
in  this,  that  they  chose  for  their  first  victims  women 
who  were  friends  of  Russia  and  friends  of  liberty. 

The    "Grandmother   of   the   Russian   Revolution," 


92         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Madame  Breschko-Breschkovsky,  has  had  a  better  fate 
so  far;  but  as  she  belongs  to  the  Social-Revolutionary 
party,  and  is  a  friend  of  the  Allies  and  of  war  till  vic- 
tory, she  is  not  yet  out  of  danger.  After  her  triumphal 
return  to  Petrograd,  she  was  forced  to  occupy  a  hand- 
some suite  of  rooms  in  an  upper  story  of  the  Winter 
Palace,  almost  directly  over  the  offices  of  the  Provi- 
sional Government.  Popular  legend  declared  that 
"Grandmother"  was  Russia's  real  ruler,  she  having 
enormous  influence  with  the  Prime  Minister  Keren- 
sky,  who  summoned  her  to  every  meeting  of  ministers 
and  listened  to  her  advice.  This  story  was  untrue; 
for  Russia  it  would  have  been  better  had  it  been  true, 
for  "Grandmother"  was  a  far  more  masculine  and 
vital  character  than  the  nerveless  Prime  Minister. 
Kerensky  professed  for  her  great  veneration  and  con- 
stantly payed  her  ceremonial  visits,  but  he  used  her 
popularity  with  the  masses  in  order  to  advertise  him- 
self. While  he  was  posing  as  a  great  patriot  to  the 
innocent  Ally  diplomats  and  the  uncomprehending 
Root  commission,  "Grandmother"  was  doing  the  real 
work.  Working  with  the  Social-Revolutionary  party, 
the  party  of  peasants,  which  never  turned  its  back 
upon  the  War,  and  would  never  have  ratified  Ger- 
many's peace  had  it  been  allowed  to  vote,  she  carried 
on  a  vigorous  enlightening  propaganda  in  favor  of 
order,  legality  and  a  patriotic  attitude  towards  the 
war.  In  three  months,  she  arranged  the  distribution 
of  over  six  million  pamphlets  among  the  soldiers  at 
the  front.  When  I  last  saw  her  towards  the  close 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  93 

of  September,  she  told  me  that  she  was  directing  140 
daily  newspapers,  some  for  army  reading,  some  for 
the  peasants,  all  in  favor  of  fighting  for  Russia's 
integrity  and  for  the  security  of  the  Revolution  in 
union  with  America  and  the  European  Allies.  It  is 
surprising  that  while  Kerensky  was  being  advertised 
in  America  for  his  wholly  ineffective  war  work,  the 
tremendous  and  real  labors  of  Breschkovsky  were 
ignored ;  and  that  while  money  was  being  sent  from 
America  for  such  absurd  propaganda — at  which  Rus- 
sians laughed — as  the  presentation  of  moving  pictures, 
"Grandmother"  was  complaining  of  the  hampering 
of  her  work  through  lack  of  a  few  hundred  roubles. 

Showing  me  a  batch  of  pamphlets,  some  written 
by  herself,  some  by  other  prominent  patriots,  all  well 
written  and  convincing,  she  expressed  her  faith  that 
Russia  would  come  through.  It  was  touching  to  see 
this  old  woman — who,  with  her  handsome,  deeply- 
lined  face,  flashing  eyes,  and  the  red  kerchief  on  her 
hair,  resembled  one  of  the  Rembrandt  heads  in  the 
Hermitage — refusing  even  in  this  worst  stage  to 
despair  of  her  country.  Her  one  cause  of  complaint 
was  her  gilded  captivity. 

"Do  you  know  how  I  felt  when  the  cheering  crowd 
brought  me  to  these  palace  rooms,  and  left  me  alone  ?" 
she  asked.  "I  felt  as  I  felt  when  I  was  first  arrested 
for  revolutionary  work,  and  locked  up  in  my  'stone 
sack'  in  the  Peter  and  Paul  Fortress." 

This  interview  took  place  shortly  after  the 
Korniloff  revolt.  Breschkovsky  denounced  the 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


educated  classes  for  the  way  in  which  after  encourag- 
ing the  Commander-in-Chief  they  basely  left  him  in 
the  lurch.  "Still  worse  disorders,"  she  said,  "are 
coming.  But  you  can  tell  America  not  to  despair  of 
us.  The  disorders  are  normal.  They  are  the  fruit 
of  the  political  and  social  igonrance  of  our  people. 
I  believe  in  Russia.  I  see  growing  anarchy;  but  I 
see  also  that  people  are  progressing.  Six  months  ago 
when  I  was  in  Siberia,  the  peasants  had  no  notion 
at  all  of  their  political  duties,  and  no  patriotic  attitude 
towards  their  country;  but  to-day  they  are  preparing 
in  an  enlightened  spirit  for  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
which  I  hope  will  settle  our  troubles.  The  peasants 
understand  their  unfitness  for  direct  administration 
and  legislation;  and  they  are  choosing  the  best- 
educated  candidates.  And  of  the  Army  I  refuse  to 
despair." 

"How  then  do  you  account  for  the  growing  dis- 
organization? The  murders?" 

"The  cause  is  the  first  great  mistake  of  the  Provi- 
sional Government.  If  anything  could  wreck  our 
Revolution — it  is  this  mistake.  In  order  to  get  rid 
of  the  spies  and  gendarmes  maintained  by  the  Tsar, 
who  would  probably  become  foes  of  the  Revolution 
and  tools  of  counter-revolutionists,  the  Government 
sent  them  to  the  front.  From  letters  which  I  have 
received,  and  from  reports  from  soldiers,  I  know  that 
it  is  the  spies  and  the  gendarmes  of  the  Autocracy 
who  are  the  great  agents  of  dissolution  and  pro- 
German  propaganda.  They  hope  to  destroy  the 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  95 

Revolution  by  bringing  upon  us  foreign  defeat;  and 
their  hope  is  that  foreign  defeat  will  restore  the 
Monarchy,  after  which  the  golden  age  of  espionage 
will  return.  That,  not  lack  of  patriotism,  among  the 
soldiers,  is  the  cause  of  the  tragedy  which  you  now 
witness  at  the  front." 

The  "Grandmother  of  the  Russian  Revolution" 
declared  that  she  had  only  one  passion  left — 
impatience  to  see  the  triumph,  via  order  and 
patriotism,  of  the  revolutionary  principles  for  which 
she  had  fought  since  girlhood.  She  told  me  that  she 
would  go  to  the  country  and  perhaps  to  the  front 
to  work  among  the  people,  paying  particular  attention 
to  the  returned  soldiers  and  to  women's  questions.  By 
women's  questions  she  understood  hygiene  and 
domestic  economy.  For  political  Feminism  she  had 
not  much  sympathy,  and  would  only  admit  reluctantly 
that  women  had  a  right  to  vote  if  they  wished;  and 
for  the  Women's  Battalion,  the  most  striking  instance 
of  active  Feminism  so  far,  she  had  nothing  good  to 
say.  But  she  admitted  that  the  Battalion  was  no 
accidental  phenomenon;  it  could  have  sprung  up 
nowhere  except  in  Russia;  and  it  was  one  more  proof 
that  in  the  equalization  of  the  sexes  Russia  led  the 
world. 

The  organizer  of  this  battalion,  Mile.  Boutchkarieff, 
I  saw  twice.  She  was  not  a  mademoiselle  in  the  or- 
dinary sense  of  the  word ;  and  she  had  no  claim  to  the 
rank  colonel,  given  to  her  when  she  visited  America; 
but  as  reward  for  stout  fighting  before  the  Revolution, 


96         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

she  had  received  the  honorary  rank  of  sergeant.  She 
was  an  undersized,  thick-set,  extremely  plain  woman, 
with  a  yellow  skin,  sparse  hair,  and  a  very  red  nose 
due  to  some  cause  other  than  drink.  If  seen  among 
men  soldiers,  no  one  would  have  taken  her  for  any- 
thing but  an  ugly  boy  of  twenty-five.  She  could  read 
and  write;  but  she  had  little  other  education;  and 
in  conversation,  though  undoubtedly  a  sturdy  patriot, 
she  betrayed  no  particularly  exalted  sentiments  about 
the  Fatherland.  She  gave  me  the  impression  of  an 
ordinary  conscript  soldier,  hardened  by  life  in  camp 
and  trench,  without  much  sensibility,  and  with  an 
unusually  cold-blooded  and  professional  attitude 
toward  the  soldiering  trade.  She  neither  advertised 
herself  nor  her  scheme  to  form  a  regiment  of  women; 
and  the  regiment  was  already  formed,  and  in  fact 
partly  as  result  of  defections,  before  the  public  knew 
about  it. 

Five  hundred  girls  and  women,  many  belonging  to 
famous  families,  were  at  first  enrolled  and  drilled.  I 
visited  their  barracks  early  in  June.  The  Petrograd 
War  Office  had  already  recognized  the  enterprise; 
undertaken  to  supply  uniforms,  arms,  food  and  pay; 
organized  for  it  the  usual  system  of  regimental 
accountancy;  and  ordered  the  provincial  conscription 
authorities  that  girl  volunteers  should  travel  at  State 
cost,  like  men  soldiers.  The  barracks  were  a  school 
building  in  the  Torgovaya  Street  in  the  west  of 
Petrograd.  At  the  courtyard  gate,  I  saw  my  first 
woman  soldier — a  little,  blue-eyed  girl  dressed  in  a 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  97 

soldier's  ordinary  khaki  blouse  much  too  big,  short 
breeches,  a  gray-green  forage  cap,  and  ordinary 
women's  black  stockings  and  somewhat  ornamental 
shoes  with  neatly  tied  ribbon  bows.  Half  of  the 
women  soldiers  were  dressed  in  this  grotesque  way, 
because  the  War  Office  had  refused  to  make  special 
uniforms  and  boots  until  it  was  sure  that  the  women 
would  fight;  and  the  women,  though  they  could  wrear 
the  much  too  big  men's  blouses  and  breeches,  could  not 
possibly  walk  in  regulation  boots.  Therefore  they 
wore  their  own  shoes  and  stockings;  and  in  this  get 
up,  incredible  as  it  seems,  many  entered  the  trenches. 

The  sentry  was  Marya  Skrydloff,  daughter  of 
Admiral  Skrydloff,  a  very  well-known  naval  officer, 
who  commanded  the  Baltic  Fleet,  and  was  Minister 
of  Marine.  The  first  Woman's  Battalion  was  almost 
entirely  composed  of  girls  belonging  to  the  educated 
class.  Most  were  students  in  the  women's  higher 
educational  courses.  The  second  Women's  Battalion 
of  Petrograd,  which  was  a  much  more  imposing 
affair,  but  never  went  to  the  front,  was  mostly  com- 
posed of  working-class  women,  servants  and  peasants. 
This  was  the  result  of  BoutchkariefFs  experiment  with 
the  spoiled  middle-class.  She  complained  to  me  that 
of  five  hundred  women  who  had  volunteered  to  serve, 
only  two  hundred  were  left  after  three  weeks'  train- 
ing. They  had  failed  under  the  rigid  discipline. 

Boutchkarieff  took  me  over  the  barracks.  It  con- 
sisted of  four  large  dormitories.  The  beds,  without 
bedclothes  or  even  mattresses,  were  strewn  with  men- 


98         RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

soldiers'  heavy  overcoats,  on  which  the  girls  were 
forced  to  sleep. 

"What  is  the  meaning  of  that,"  I  asked. 

"That  is  my  system  of  training,"  said  Boutch- 
kariefL  "I  decided  from  the  first  to  try  the  hardest 
possible  discipline.  Instead  of  medically  examining 
the  girls  and  rejecting  the  weak,  we  decided  to  put 
all  volunteers  to  a  hard  test ;  so  that  those  who  would 
not  stand  field  life  could  leave.  That  is  why  I  have 
lost  half  of  my  volunteers.  The  rest  will  stand  the 
trenches.  Our  discipline  is  hard.  I  decided  that  girls 
could  not  be  drilled  upon  the  anarchical  principles 
which  are  now  applied  in  our  disorganized  army  at 
the  front;  and  I  enforce  the  rigid  discipline  of  the 
pre-revolutionary  army.  With  us  there  is  no  'soldiers' 
self-government.'  But  I  have  no  legal  right  to  punish 
my  girls,  otherwise  I  should  shoot  them  for  dis- 
obedience." 

In  the  dining-room  were  the  remnants  of  a  woman 
soldier's  breakfast,  which  consisted  of  very  bad  black 
bread,  and  very  liquid  tea  without  sugar.  The  girls 
rose  at  5  o'clock  and  drilled  without  a  rest  from  7 
to  ii  and  afterwards  from  i  to  6.  Men  soldiers, 
boasted  Boutchkarieff,  were  never  subjected  to  such 
a  Spartan  regime.  Yet  the  Battalion  was  to  some 
extent  a  sham.  The  girls  were  sincere  and  so  was 
the  commander;  but  drilling  was  being  carried  on 
with  sticks.  In  theory  the  Battalion  was  armed  with 
the  cavalry  carbine,  which  is  five  pounds  lighter  than 
the  infantrymen's  rifle;  in  fact,  only  the  sentry  had 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  99 

a  firearm;  to  the  others  rifles  were  first  dealt  out  the 
day  the  Battalion  left  for  the  front.  Although  the 
drill-sergeants  were  experienced  men,  detailed  from 
the  Voluinsky  regiment,  which  distinguished  itself  by 
being  the  first  Petrograd  unit  to  go  over  to  the  Revolu- 
tion, the  girls  knew  very  little  of  military  affairs ;  and 
few  outsiders  believed  that  they  would  go  to  the  front. 
But  on  the  ist  of  July  they  went,  after  being  blessed 
at  a  solemn  ceremony  in  the  Kazan  Cathedral;  and 
a  fortnight  later,  they  engaged  at  Kreda  near  Smorgon 
in  their  first  and  only  battle. 

At  four  on  a  cold  morning,  the  two  companies  of 
women  were  ordered  into  a  front  trench,  half  a  mile 
from  the  nearest  German  works.  While  on  their  way 
to  this  trench,  two  girls  were  killed  by  shellfire.  The 
rest  without  a  shudder  continued  their  march.  In  the 
trench  they  began  to  lose  steadily  from  shrapnel.  As 
they  had  come  "to  give  an  example  to  the  men 
soldiers,"  they  refused  to  go  into  dug-outs.  Soon 
began  the  brief  German  attack.  The  enemy,  who  had 
no  idea  that  he  was  opposed  by  women,  had  his 
skirmishers  in  advance  on  both  flanks.  The  women 
shot  vigorously,  and  believed  that  they  were  account- 
ing for  many  foes.  What  was  happening  in  the 
neighboring  trenches  occupied  by  men  soldiers  they 
could  not  say;  but  at  a  moment  when  the  Germans 
were  cutting  their  way  through  the  projecting  en- 
tanglement, a  girl  from  the  flank  on  the  women's 
position  ran  along  the  trenches  screaming,  "All  the 
men  have  run  away."  The  Germans  rushed  on.  Some 


100       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

of  them,  having  captured  a  fortified  hillock,  began 
firing  down  into  the  women's  trenches  and  the  women 
began  to  fall  quickly ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  enemy 
in  overwhelming  numbers  broke  through  the  entangle- 
ment and  rushed  the  trench.  A  few  of  the  girls  stood 
their  ground,  the  others  knowing  that  the  position 
was  lost  fled,  or,  as  they  said,  retreated.  The  majority 
escaped.  Two  were  taken  prisoners,  about  twenty 
were  left  dead  upon  the  ground,  and  about  fifteen 
were  wounded,  among  them  Boutchkarieff  and,  I 
believe,  the  daughter  of  Admiral  Skrydloff.  The 
others,  having  shown  great  courage  under  fire  and 
shamed  the  men  by  their  steadfastness,  got  to  the 
rear,  where  they  had  the  further  pain  of  being  mocked 
by  the  disorderly  men,  who  shouted:  "So  you  also 
ran  away.  We  thought  you  would." 

The  "Battalion  of  Death"  had  a  painful  ending. 
It  was  sent  to  Moscow,  where  Boutchkarieff  after  her 
recovery  again  took  command.  A  quarrel  ensued: 
some  girls  set  upon  their  commander  and  beat  her; 
and  as  result,  an  order  was  issued  by  the  Minister 
of  War  for  the  disbandment  of  the  battalion.  But 
the  idea  survived.  Two  months  later  I  inspected 
in  Petrograd  the  second  Women's  Regiment,  and  in- 
terviewed the  organizer,  Miss  Fromenko.  From  the 
first  battalion,  the  second  learned  a  lesson.  The 
second  battalion  was  well  organized,  well  recruited, 
well  equipped  and  well  drilled.  The  drill  period  was 
three  months ;  all  the  volunteers — mostly  sturdy  work- 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION         101 

ing  girls — had  rifles,  bayonets,  and  good  uniforms  and 
boots;  and  they  were  instructed  by  a  commissioned 
officer.  They  had  a  sanitary  service,  a  machine-gun 
detachment,  and  a  mounted  unit  of  twenty-six  Cos- 
sack women  who  had  been  in  the  saddle  all  their  lives. 
No  girl  was  accepted  without  medical  examination. 
After  six  weeks'  drilling  in  town,  the  women,  then 
1000  strong,  went  to  a  camp  at  Levashova  outside 
Petrograd,  and  there  learned  soldiers'  outdoor  work. 
The  environs  of  Petrograd  teemed  with  bandits  who 
in  search  of  food  constantly  raided  the  women's  camp 
at  night.  Pitched  battles  ensued,  and  some  of  the 
girls  were  wounded. 

The  organizer  of  this  battalion,  Miss  Fromenko, 
was  a  pretty,  delicate  looking  girl  of  twenty,  who  was 
herself  unfit  for  soldiering,  but  considered  that  women 
would  make  as  good  soldiers  as  men.  In  fact,  these 
women,  like  the  first  Battalion  of  Death,  made  better 
soldiers  than  the  men.  In  November  when  the  Provi- 
sional Government  was  in  extremis  as  result  of  the 
Bolshevik  insurrection  the  girl  soldiers,  "faithful 
among  the  faithless"  stood  fast,  and  defended  the 
government  headquarters,  the  Winter  Palace,  losing 
many  of  their  number,  against  overwhelming  numbers 
of  Bolsheviks.  The  statement  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Boutchkarieff  during  her  visit  to  America  that  the 
women  proved  of  no  use  because  they  thought  only 
of  powder-puffs  and  other  vanities  was  untrue.  Ow- 
ing to  physical  weakness,  the  women  were  unfit  for 


102       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

soldiering;  but  the  spirit  was  willing;  and  no  unit  of 
women  soldiers  ran  away,  murdered  or  plundered  as 
did  the  men  on  all  fronts  after  the  Bolshevik  propa- 
ganda began.  Therein  the  attitude  of  Russia's 
women  in  the  death-throes  of  the  Revolution  was  in 
accord  with  their  heroic  part  in  its  birth. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM 

THE  sudden  outbreak  of  disorder  which  occurred 
within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Revolution,  and  which 
brought  to  naught  the  well-conceived,  ardently 
awaited  reforms  described  in  the  two  preceding 
chapters,  proved  a  great  puzzle  to  foreigners  who  took 
into  account  only  the  traditionally  peaceable  and  pas- 
sive character  of  the  Russian  people. 

The  explanation  already  given — the  deep-rooted 
national  prejudice  against  discipline  as  an  equivalent 
of  bureaucratic  tyranny — is  sufficient  to  explain  the 
outbreak.  But  it  is  not  sufficient  to  explain  the 
particular  forms  which  the  outbreak  took.  The  out- 
break took  the  form  of  general,  undiluted  Nihilism. 
From  the  middle  of  April,  1917,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Bolshevik  revolt,  the  Revolution  was  a  continuous 
exemplification  of  the  Nihilist  method  and  the 
Nihilist  temper;  and  since  then  Nihilism  has  been 
the  conscious  guiding  principle  of  the  Soviet 
administration. 

The  late  General  Loris  MelikofT,  Alexander  the 
Second's  Constitutionalist  minister,  defined  Nihilism 
as  "the  destruction  of  all  moral  and  material  values." 

103 


104       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Nihilism  as  a  Russian  party  title  has  been  extinct 
for  thirty  years.  The  Nihilist  Party  began  to  dissolve 
after  the  assassination  of  Alexander  II.  The  Ter- 
rorist deeds  perpetrated  under  Nicholas  II  were  the 
work  not  of  Nihilists,  but  as  a  rule  of  a  body  known 
as  the  "Fighting  Organization  of  the  Social-Revolu- 
tionary Party."  But  though  Nihilism  as  a  name  was 
long  ago  relegated  to  history,  Nihilism  as  a  fact  sur- 
vived. It  survived  because  it  still  had  strong  attrac- 
tions for  the  national  temperament.  Dead  in  active 
politics,  it  kept  cropping  up  under  other  names  and 
in  non-political  forms.  It  can  be  traced  in  all  modern 
Russian  literature,  very  plainly  in  the  works  of  the 
best  of  all  purely  modern  Russian  writers,  the  late 
Anton  Tchekhoff,  where  it  appears  as  passivism  or 
negative  indirferentism ;  and  less  plainly  but  in  more 
aggressive  forms  in  Gorky,  in  the  pseudo-Nietzschen 
Artzybacheff,  and  in  many  living  writers  of  less  note. 
Nihilism  arose  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  Its  dis- 
coverer and  namer  was  the  novelist  Ivan  Turgenieff. 
TurgeniefT  was  himself  no  Nihilist,  but  a  European 
Liberal,  a  Zapadnik,  or  Westerner,  firmly  opposed  to 
Slavophilism  and  other  Russian  pretensions  to  a 
separate  potentially  superior  civilization.  The  word 
Nihilism  as  applied  to  Russia  first  occurs  in  Tur- 
geniefFs  novel,  Fathers  and  Sons,  the  hero  of  which, 
Bazaroff,  prototype  of  all  Nihilists,  proclaimed  that 
the  existing  false  civilization  must  be  destroyed  before 
the  seeds  of  a  real  civilization  could  be  sown.  For 
the  present,  destruction  was  enough.  In  a  later  novel, 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  105 

Virgin  Soil,  Turgenieff  first  showed  Nihilism  at  work. 
Turgenieff  was  sharply  attacked  by  progressives  for 
his  critical  attitude  towards  the  new  creed;  he  was 
even  accused  of  writing  his  novels  at  the  behest  of 
the  despotic  government.  When  the  era  of  the  great 
assassinations  began,  the  Russian  public,  and  still 
more  so  foreigners,  identified  Nihilism  almost  exclu- 
sively with  the  Terror ;  and  the  fundamental  character 
of  the  creed — a  recklessly  denying  attitude  towards 
all  things  that  fail  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting  ideal- 
ists— was  forgotten.  But  the  real  Nihilism  was  only 
buried  alive.  When  the  Revolution  disinterred  it  by 
failing  to  satisfy  immediately  the  extremest  political 
and  economical  demands,  the  new  Nihilists  seized 
upon  the  program  of  the  old  Nihilist  BazarofT;  and 
set  to  work  to  deface  and  wreck  the  surrogates  for 
perfection  which  were  all  that  the  Revolution  could 
offer  them.  In  this,  as  in  the  other  social  actions  of 
Russians,  one  seeks  in  vain  for  clear  motives  of  self- 
interest.  Destruction,  not  depredation,  was  the  rule. 
Instead  of  the  orderly  transfer  of  wealth  into  the 
hands  of  the  victors  there  was  a  general  wiping  out 
of  wealth,  from  which  no  one  benefited,  instead  of 
leveling  up  there  was  leveling  down;  and  instead  of 
intensive  production  with  the  aim  of  turning  the  new 
Socialistic  order  to  account  for  the  supposed  bene- 
ficiaries— the  working-class — there  was  universal 
waste,  idleness  and  aimless  spoliation. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution,  the  police  and 
gendarmery  totally  disappeared,  and  even  the  criminal 


106       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

detective  service  was  wiped  out  and  not  replaced.  In 
the  towns  was  organized  a  so-called  militia,  manned 
by  untrained  civilians,  who  were  ununi formed  except 
for  the  arm-badge  "G.  M.,"  for  "Town  Militia,"  and 
were  armed  with  rifles  which  they  seldom  knew  how 
to  use.  In  the  country  there  was  no  police  at  all.  The 
population,  exhausted  by  the  War,  was  hungry,  un- 
clothed, sullen  and  hopeless.  With  all  the  restraints 
that  civilization  puts  on  men's  passions  removed,  there 
was  every  reason  why  the  mob  should  murder,  burn 
and  rob.  Yet  until  the  separate  peace  brought  about 
the  general  disbandment  of  the  Army  the  amount  of 
crime  was  not  great.  Competent  native  judges  ex- 
pected much  more.  In  July,  1917,  at  a  time  when 
the  revolutionary  chaos  was  a  byword  in  the  foreign 
Press,  Prince  Lvoff  remarked  to  me  that  Petrograd 
without  a  police  force  was  nearly  as  safe  as  London 
with  a  police  force;  and  added  that  if  in  London,  as 
in  Russia,  crime  went  wholly  unpunished  the  mob 
would  probably  sack  the  Bank  of  England  and  the 
palaces  of  the  West  End. 

Crimes  of  violence  were  at  first  few.  Violence  is 
foreign  to  the  Russian  character.  But  Russians  are 
not  exempt  from  the  law  that  panic  provokes  to  crime ; 
and  at  a  later  stage  panic  on  the  score  of  "counter- 
revolution" led  to  wholesale  massacres.  At  the  first 
hint  that  individuals  or  classes  were  aiming  at  a 
restoration  of  strong  government,  the  masses,  who 
preferred  the  worst  revolutionary  anarchy  to  the  com- 
parative order  of  Tsarism,  set  out  to  kill.  The  revolt 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  107 

of  General  Korniloff  led  to  wholesale  massacres  of 
officers  at  Kronstadt,  Helsingfors  and  Vyborg;  a  little 
later  to  the  savage  butchery  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  Dukhonin;  and  finally,  after  the  Bolshevik 
triumph,  to  the  murders  of  the  ex-ministers  Shin- 
garieff  and  Kokoshkin  as  they  lay  ill  in  hospital. 

But  the  ordinary  motives  of  crime — cruelty  and 
greed — were  almost  wholly  absent.  When  the  Revolu- 
tion broke  out,  people  who  imagined  that  they  knew 
Russia  predicted  fearful  massacres  on  the  land. 
There  was  to  be  a  jacquerie  similar  to  that  which 
ravaged  the  chateaux  of  France  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  This  prediction  was  based  on  the  land- 
hunger  of  the  peasants.  The  Empire's  chief  economic 
disease  was  peasant  landlessness.  In  European  Russia 
sixty  millions  of  people  are  crowded  on  plots  of  land 
which  though  big  enough  to  support  families  if  in- 
tensively cultivated,  are  wholly  inadequate  when  tilled 
by  the  primitive  methods  of  the  moujik.  In  the 
decades  before  the  Revolution  there  were  constant 
riots  against  proprietors,  and  these  riots  were  sup- 
pressed mercilessly.  When  with  the  triumph  of  the 
Revolution  the  police  disappeared,  the  peasants  could 
have  destroyed  with  impunity  every  manor-house  and 
seized  all  land.  But  as  a  rule  they  remained  peace- 
fully at  home,  waiting  for  the  Constituent  Assembly 
to  decide  upon  what  terms  proprietorial  land  should 
be  transferred  into  their  hands.  The  exceptions  were 
chiefly  the  result,  not  of  direct  peasant  action  but  of 
the  measures  of  self-constituted  local  "republics," 


108      RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

which  seized  all  land,  and  attempted,  always  without 
success,  to  cultivate  it  upon  communist  principles. 

Panic  on  the  score  of  ''counter-revolution"  led  to 
the  destruction  of  many  estates.  When  the  peasants 
learned,  usually  without  foundation,  that  a  local 
Marshal  of  the  Nobility,  Count  or  Prince,  was  "op- 
posing the  Revolution"  they  marched  to  the  suspect's 
estate,  and  burned  his  house.  In  the  government  of 
Tamboff,  southeast  of  Moscow,  mobs  of  terrified 
peasants  made  pilgrimages  from  estate  to  estate  and 
destroyed  everything.  But  the  Nihilist,  not  the 
brigand  spirit  governed  their  methods.  They  chose 
usually  the  best-managed  properties  equipped  with 
modern  machinery,  sometimes  even  model  farms  from 
which  they  themselves  had  learned  all  they  knew  of 
agriculture;  and  often  without  robbing  anything,  they 
gave  everything  to  the  flames. 

In  the  cities,  too,  the  Revolution  seemed  to  aim  blindly 
at  destruction.  Just  as  the  political  revolutionaries, 
with  the  exception  of  the  moderate  adherents  of  the 
Provisional  Government,  were  content  with  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Tsardom  and  did  nothing  to  enroot  new 
institutions,  so  the  social  revolutionaries  rejoiced  in 
demolishing  everything  they  could  not  appreciate, 
without  any  concern  for  what  should  come  after.  The 
most  barbarous  vandalism  was  shown  towards  works 
of  art.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Revolution  a  fanatic 
demanded  the  complete  razing  of  the  Winter  Palace, 
declaring  that  "the  debris  might  be  left — a  heap  of 
shapeless  stones  and  rotting  wood — as  a  finer  monu- 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  109 

ment  to  the  fall  of  the  Romanoffs  than  the  hand- 
somest monument  to  Liberty  reared  anywhere  else  on 
earth."  The  mob  defaced  the  handsome  iron  and 
brass  railing  around  the  Palace  Park  on  which  the 
last  Tsar  spent  $750,000.  The  gold  eagles  and  Im- 
perial crowns  and  monograms  disappeared;  and  the 
honest  iconoclasts  characteristically  refused  to  sell 
them  as  relics;  and  cast  them  into  the  Neva.  Every- 
where showed  defaced  signboards,  brass  plates  with 
demonstrative  erasure  of  the  word  "Imperial,"  and 
demolished  insignia.  A  society  was  formed  for 
"removal  of  all  external  objects  connected  with  the 
Tsardom."  The  destroyers  even  proposed  to  melt 
down  the  fine  statue  of  Peter  the  Great,  erected  by 
Catherine  II  in  the  Senate  Square.  In  different  parts 
of  the  country  about  twenty  monuments  were 
demolished,  among  them  the  statue  erected  at  Kieff 
to  Nicholas  II's  reactionary  Prime  Minister,  Peter 
Stolypin,  which  I  believe  was  the  only  statue  ever 
erected  in  Russia  to  a  mere  politician. 

The  interiors  of  public  buildings  occupied  by  com- 
mittees of  soldiers  and  workingmen  were  defaced, 
dirtied  and  made  uninhabitable.  As  a  type  of  what 
happened  in  the  palaces,  in  the  Duma  building,  and 
later  in  the  famous  Smolny  Institute,  the  headquarters 
of  the  Bolsheviks,  I  describe  the  following  from 
personal  observation.  The  scene  is  the  Winter  Palace, 
on  the  eve  of  a  threatened  revolt  by  the  Bolsheviks 
and  Red  Guard  of  the  anarchical  Vyborg  Quarter, 
north  of  the  Neva.  In  a  gorgeous  hall,  upholstered 


110       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

in  white  velvet,  glowing  with  jasper,  malachite, 
marquetry  and  buhl,  with  cream  satin  hangings  and 
silver  chandeliers,  was  quartered  a  company  of 
Chasseurs.  Their  duty  was  to  defend  the  Palace, 
then  headquarters  of  the  Government,  against  attack. 
The  soldiers  were  in  excellent  humor;  they  had  a 
concertina;  they  had  food  and  kvass;  and  they  had 
greasy  newspapers  which  they  tore  into  strips  for 
cigarettes.  All  were  dirty.  Some  slept  on  straw 
spread  upon  the  parquetted  floor;  others  lounged  on 
the  white  velvet  sofas.  One  soldier  danced,  ceasing 
occasionally  to  rest;  whereupon  he  made  jokes  about 
the  Imperial  Family;  and  after  every  remark  he  spat 
demonstratively,  sometimes  on  the  floor,  sometimes 
against  the  walls.  His  comrades  applauded,  and  cried 
"Again!"  From  the  lounging  soldiers'  uniforms  and 
boots,  the  walls  were  covered  with  filth;  the  white 
sofas  were  strewn  with  fragments  of  bacon,  stained 
with  the  national  soup  schtchi  and  burned  by  care- 
lessly dropped  cigarettes.  One  warrior  had  thrown 
his  blouse  over  a  chandelier,  and  in  pulling  it  back 
had  broken  off  a  branch  which  lay  among  glass 
fragments  on  the  floor.  In  a  corner  was  a  vast  heap  of 
food-cans,  rags,  cigarette-ends  and  ashes.  These  some 
unreasonably  tidy  person  had  brushed  into  a  heap; 
but  the  lounging  soldiers  dragged  the  dirt  out  on  their 
boots,  and  churned  it  into  a  paste  on  the  wet  floor. 
With  the  soldiers  were  Junkers — young  men  of 
education — who  looked  on  in  disgust,  but  feared  to 
protest.  Py  similar  treatment  the  Duma  building  was 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  111! 

turned  into  a  stable.  This  handsome  edifice  was  built 
by  Catherine  II  for  her  favorite,  Potemkin,  "the 
magnificent  prince  of  Tauride,"  conqueror  of  the 
Turks  and  inventor  of  "Potemkin  villages" — rows  of 
camouflage  peasant  cabins  of  cardboard  run  up  in 
order  to  give  the  sovereign  a  false  notion  of  rural 
prosperity.  The  palace  was  restored  in  1906  for  the 
use  of  the  first  Duma;  and  it  was  used  as  parliament 
house  until  the  Revolution.  Then  it  was  seized  by 
the  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies,  by  the  Peasant 
organizations  and  by  associations  representing  dif- 
ferent national  movements.  The  pillars  were  defaced 
with  proclamations,  which  were  later  torn  off,  bring- 
ing with  them  the  plaster;  the  cornices  were  kicked 
to  dust;  the  walls  were  scrawled  on;  windows  were 
broken;  and  historic  furniture  was  ruined.  A  month 
after  the  Revolution  the  palace  of  "the  magnificent 
prince"  was  an  obscene  temple  of  barbarism. 

Zeal  to  obliterate  all  traces  of  the  Tsardom  led 
to  other  excesses,  mostly  of  more  innocent  kind,  but 
none  the  less  informed  by  the  same  Nihilist  spirit  that 
denies  history  and  tradition  just  as  it  denies  institu- 
tions. Streets  called  after  Romanoff  tsars  or  grand 
dukes  were  renamed  after  revolutionary,  and  even 
Terrorist,  heroes,  or  decorated  with  abstractions, 
Chinese  in  their  magniloquence,  indicative  of  freedom. 
On  signboards  appeared  the  names  of  Kalayeff  and 
Gershuni,  assassins  of  autocratist  dignitaries;  in 
Odessa  was  a  "Street  of  the  Eternal  Memory  of  the 
Martyrs  of  the  Revolution";  the  brand-new  port 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


Romanoff  on  the  Arctic  Ocean  was  renamed  Mur- 
mansk; and  as  it  was  inconvenient  to  rename  great 
cities  like  Ekaterinburg  (called  after  Catherine)  and 
Nikolaieff,  it  was  proposed  to  say  "New  Ekaterin- 
burg" and  "Emancipated  Nikolaieff."  In  Moscow 
the  "House  of  the  Boyard  Romanoff,"  wherein  the 
Tsar's  ancestors  lived  before  their  elevation  to  the 
Throne  was  renamed  "House  of  a  Russian  Noble." 
Leonid  Andreyeff  and  other  well-known  men  of  let- 
ters condemned  this  iconoclasm  and  against  the 
destruction  of  monuments  the  Socialist  Council  of 
Deputies  was  at  last  obliged  to  protest. 

In  all  this  were  much  wanton  destructiveness  and 
much  freakish  extravagance;  but  there  was  little  con- 
scious crime.  Thefts  were  rare.  In  the  Winter 
Palace  and  in  other  Petrograd  and  provincial  build- 
ings, the  soldiers  came  into  control  of  valuable 
property  in  gold,  silver,  precious  stones  and  paintings 
and  tapestries.  These  were  worth  tens  of  millions 
of  dollars.  Everyone  predicted  that  they  would  dis- 
appear, but  the  prediction  proved  wrong.  From  the 
Winter  Palace  were  stolen  a  few  of  the  inlaid  gold 
and  silver  plates  upon  which  peasant  communes  had 
presented  bread-and-salt  to  visiting  Tsars;  and  there 
was  a  bold  raid  upon  the  Senate,  accompanied  by 
the  robbery  of  valuable  statues  presented  by  Catherine 
II.  But  the  Russian  negative  attitude  towards 
property  was  again  exemplified.  The  mob  and  soldiers 
profaned  and  mutilated  because  they  had  no  concep- 
tion of  artistic  values;  but  this  very  motive  prevented 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  113 

them  from  stealing;  and  Petrograd  and  Moscow, 
though  entirely  unpoliced,  escaped  the  general  looting 
which  under  similar  conditions  would  certainly  have 
been  experienced  by  any  city  of  civilized  Western 
Europe. 

The  real  orgy  of  crime  began  only  about  mid-July 
after  the  rout  in  Galicia  which  followed  KornilofFs 
successful  march  to  Kalisch  and  Halusz.  The 
offenders  this  time  were  the  soldiers ;  and  though  they 
robbed  and  pillaged,  destruction  rather  than  profit 
governed  their  misdeeds.  The  western  provinces, 
especially  those  immediately  behind  the  front,  were 
ravaged  till  nothing  was  left.  Fragments  of  a 
regiment  of  hungry,  panic-stricken,  Bolshevik-incited 
soldiers  would  arrive  at  a  railroad  center,  march  into 
town,  dispossessing  the  feeble  and  inactive  local 
authorities;  and  burn,  murder  and  violate  without 
limit.  If  officers  remonstrated  they  were  put  to  death 
— pierced  with  bayonets,  clubbed,  tortured,  or  told  to 
run  away  and  then  shot  down.  In  a  town  of  Saratoff 
province,  soldiers  burned  down  two-thirds  of  the 
buildings;  levied  a  contribution  of  a  million  rubles 
— which  they  characteristically  tore  up;  destroyed  the 
art  gallery  of  a  rich  resident ;  and  ended  by  murdering 
forty  citizens.  The  rest  of  the  town  might  have 
perished  had  not  the  rioters  heard  that  a  "counter- 
revolutionary" plot  was  being  hatched  on  an  estate 
ten  miles  off.  Seized  by  new  panic  they  marched  on 
the  estate,  clubbed  the  proprietor,  a  prominent  pro- 
gressive, to  death,  and  killed  his  two  daughters.  Kazan 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

and  Nijni-Novgorod  in  European  Russia,  and  Tomsk 
and  Yeneseisk  in  Siberia,  witnessed  similar  military 
license,  the  chief  victims  being  men  of  property  guilt- 
less of  real  political  offenses  but  suspected  as 
monarchists.  "Dictators"  sprang  up  like  mushrooms, 
and  founded  independent  statelets.  Most  of  these 
statelets  began  with  a  semblance  of  order  and  with 
ostensible  devotion  to  the  humane,  liberationist  prin- 
ciples of  the  boy-dictator  of  Kronstadt;  but  later  they 
were  scenes  of  anarchy  and  massacre.  The  most 
notorious  was  the  "Republic  of  Pereyaslavl,"  which 
for  months  repudiated  the  Provisional  Government. 
The  dictator,  who  claimed  power  of  life  or  death 
over  the  population,  was  the  Socialist  Khrustalieff- 
Nossar  mentioned  by  me  already  as  the  chief  of  the 
first  Council  of  Workmen's  Deputies,  founded  during 
the  Revolution  of  1905. 

Naturally,  mysticism,  a  strong  Russian  character- 
istic, appears  in  this  tale  of  anarchy.  During  the 
transient  war  enthusiasm  of  1914,  mysticism  produced 
a  multitude  of  peasant  prophets  who  strongly  cham- 
pioned the  war,  not  on  grounds  of  any  political  or 
material  benefits  which  Russia  might  gain — to  these 
the  true  Russian  was  as  a  rule  indifferent — but  on 
the  ground  of  less  tangible  and  often  highly  improb- 
able gains.  Victory  would  "accelerate  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah";  it  would  "regenerate  the  Russian  soul" 
or  it  would  "redeem  the  Holy  Church  from  the  in- 
novations of  the  Patriarch  Nikon."  The  Revolu- 
tionary mysticism  had  the  same  character.  At 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  115 

Kronstadt,  at  the  club  of  the  Anarchists — the  most 
fanatical  and  sanguinary  element  of  the  mob  which 
gathered  on  the  Anchor  Place — I  met  a  Moscow 
visionary  and  fanatic  named  Lieshkoff,  who  with  wild 
gestures,  flashing  eyes  and  words  which  left  no  doubt 
whatever  of  his  sincerity,  proclaimed  that  the 
propertied  bourgeoisie  was  the  Beast  in  Revelation; 
and  vowed  that  "Christian  love  and  regard  for  the 
happiness  of  humanity  must  induce  every  thinking 
man  to  exterminate  the  whole  of  this  detestable 
class."  This  revolutionary  prophet  was  murdered 
during  a  riot  on  the  mainland  opposite  Kronstadt. 
Soldiers,  with  the  blood  of  their  officers  on  their 
hands,  whom  I  later  met  in  Finland,  assured  me  of 
similar  things.  They  were  undoubtedly  sincere;  and 
probably  in  their  pre-war  lives  as  peasants  had  been 
law-abiding  and  kind-hearted.  But  the  Revolution 
had  produced  a  spiritual  ferment  accompanied  by  a 
perversion  of  all  moral  and  religious  ideas,  which 
Europe  has  seen  nothing  like  since  the  religious  crazes 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

With  minds  so  disturbed,  the  freakish  and  comic 
element  was  bound  to  appear.  In  what  country  but 
Russia  could  the  following  occur?  In  the  first  month 
of  Revolution,  the  highway  robbers,  burglars  and 
pickpockets  of  the  large  port  of  Rostoff-on-the-Don 
held  a  Thieves*  Congress  in  the  Assembly  Hall  of  the 
town.  Five  hundred  professional  law-breakers  at- 
tended. At  the  chairman's  table,  between  two 
criminals  one  of  whom  had  been  fifteen  years  in 


116       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Siberia  for  murder,  sat  the  Commissary  of  the  Petro- 
grad  Provisional  Government  and  the  Commander 
of  the  newly  formed  local  militia.  This  Thieves' 
Congress  was  held  with  all  the  order  and  decency  of 
a  congress  of  political  economists.  The  spokesman 
of  the  criminals  made  a  solemn  declaration  that  crime, 
and  in  particular  robbery,  had  been  inevitable  products 
of  the  corrupt  Autocracy;  and  now  that  Russia  had 
obtained  her  freedom,  there  was  no  good  reason  why 
crimes  should  be  committed  any  more.  The  robber 
audience  assented.  The  Government  Commissary  and 
the  Commander  of  the  Militia  made  touching 
speeches;  a  murderer  who  sat  near  them  warmly 
embraced  both;  and  amid  general  emotion  and  exalta- 
tion, the  Congress  resolved  in  favor  of  moral  reform. 
"We  solemnly  declare  that  we  shall  henceforth  work 
honestly  for  Mother  Russia  and  the  Revolution." 
The  organization  of  a  fund  for  the  support  of  super- 
annuated thieves  who  could  not  earn  a  living  by 
honest  work  for  Mother  Russia  was  announced,  and 
a  permanent  committee  was  appointed.  As  the  Con- 
gress was  about  to  disperse,  a  burglar  in  the  audience 
slapped  his  hand  to  his  hip  pocket,  and  announced 
tragically  that  one  of  his  neighbors  had  taken  ad- 
vantage of  the  enthusiasm  to  steal  his  purse,  which 
contained  five  hundred  rubles.  The  Congress  was 
much  pained.  A  new  resolution  was  carried,  express- 
ing reprobation  for  this  act  of  treachery;  and  a  sub- 
scription was  got  up  for  the  benefit  of  the  robbed 
robber,  which  yielded  the  lost  rubles  and  something 


THE  REBIRTH  OF  NIHILISM  117 

more.  This  Congress  was  much  laughed  at  by 
foreigners;  but  of  the  honesty  of  its  initiators  and 
participators  there  was  no  doubt.  However,  even  in 
Russia  human  nature  is  human  nature;  and  three 
months  later  there  was  such  an  orgy  of  robbery  in 
RostofT-on-the-Don  that  officials  had  to  be  specially 
sent  from  Petrograd  to  clear  the  offenders  out. 

It  is  impossible  to  draw  occurrences  like  the  last 
described  under  the  general  formula  of  Nihilism.  But 
in  relations  between  employers  and  employees  the 
Revolution  expressed  itself  in  the  definitely  Nihilistic 
principle  of  dragging  down  rather  than  elevating. 
The  popular  form  of  protest  against  Capitalism  was 
general  idleness,  so  that  no  one  profited.  There  were 
continuous  strikes,  and  unreasonable  refusals  to  work; 
and  there  was,  especially  in  Petrograd,  a  great  deal 
of  purely  impudent  imposition,  going  so  far  as 
demanding  pay  while  refusing  to  work.  Upon  slavish 
minds  revolutionary  freedom  reacted  as  might  have 
been  expected;  and  the  traditional  helplessness  and 
timidity  of  members  of  the  Intelligentsiya  made  them 
easy  victims.  My  own  hotel  was  for  months  terrorized 
by  a  robber  servant  against  whom  no  one  dared  to 
take  measures.  The  "robber,"  an  ignorant  peasant 
wearing  a  red  shirt  whose  work  was  to  shine  shoes, 
had  behaved  admirably  before  the  Revolution.  Imme- 
diately after  the  Revolution  he  announced  to  the 
proprietors  that  he  would  remain  in  their  service  and 
draw  his  wages  but  must  decline  to  work.  After  that 
he  daily  demanded  money  from  guests,  and  usually 


118       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

got  it.  To  reinforce  his  demands  he  used  threats. 
Before  I  had  been  a  week  in  the  hotel,  I  found  on 
my  desk  a  dirty  slip  of  paper  inscribed  in  red  ink, 
"Please  pay  the  shoe-shiner  ten  rubles  for  cream." 
This  I  found  came  from  the  hotel  robber.  On  my 
asking  him  whether  he  had  really  spent  ten  rubles 
on  cream  for  me  only,  he  assured  me  that  he  had 
means  to  make  me  pay.  This  threat  failed.  He  com- 
mitted a  whole  series  of  outrages  against  other  guests; 
while  the  proprietor  looked  on  helplessly,  convinced 
that  if  he  took  measures  of  defense — there  were  no 
police  to  appeal  to — the  robber's  friends  in  the  newly- 
constituted  Union  of  Hotel  Servants  would  wreck  the 
hotel.  Nobody  retaliated.  The  robber  would  prob- 
ably be  victimizing  the  hotel  to-day  had  not  a  French 
visitor  who  had  been  blackmailed  for  twenty  rubles, 
reached  resolutely  for  his  stick.  Thereupon  the  man 
who  had  terrorized  a  great  hotel  for  three  months 
fled  into  the  street  screaming  "I  have  been  murdered," 
and  was  never  afterwards  seen. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BOLSHEVISM   IN  ACTION 

BEFORE  midsummer  1917  the  Revolution  was 
attacked  by  three  diseases  any  one  of  which  if  un- 
checked would  have  proved  fatal.  These  diseases 
were  the  distintegration  of  the  Army,  the  lawlessness 
of  the  urban  workingmen  and  to  less  extent  of  the 
peasantry,  and  the  complete  collapse  of  the  Empire's 
monetary,  food,  communication,  manufacturing  and 
commercial  mechanism.  The  distintegration  of  the 
Army  was  the  governing  and  vital  factor,  because  it 
made  impossible  the  enforcement  of  well-conceived 
paper  schemes  for  reconstruction  in  the  other  domains. 
Every  politically  competent  Russian  understood  this; 
and  hence  in  the  Press  and  at  interparty  conferences 
held  at  Petrograd  and  Moscow  to  find  a  way  out,  the 
dominant  topic  during  the  four  months  preceding  the 
Bolshevik  revolt  was  "the  creation  of  a  strong  govern- 
mental power."  This  really  meant  a  dependable  mili- 
tary force. 

That  this  view  was  correct  is  proved  by  the  subse- 
quent zeal  of  parties  and  individuals  to  clear  them- 
selves from  responsibility  for  having  disorganized  the 
Army.  In  fact,  all  parties  and  leaders  were 

119 


120      RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

responsible.  The  Constitutional-Democrats  and  the 
bourgeoisie  generally  were  responsible  through  their 
weakness;  and  the  Socialists  of  all  groups  were 
directly  and  consciously  responsible.  The  first 
Minister  of  War,  M.  Gutchkoff,  did  not  resign  until 
indiscipline,  the  result  of  others'  measures  which  he 
tolerated,  had  gone  very  far;  and  his  successor 
Kerensky  had  so  frivolously  undermined  the  Army 
before  he  became  Minister  of  War  that  the  protests 
and  menaces  which  he  afterwards  lavished  had  less 
than  no  effect.  In  this  matter,  between  himself,  his 
colleagues  in  the  Social-Revolutionary  and  moderate 
Menshevik  Socialist  parties,  and  the  Bolsheviks  there 
was  at  first  no  difference  at  all.  All — some  indeed 
without  knowing  what  they  were  doing — set  to  work 
to  wreck  the  national  defense  system;  and  did  not 
see  until  it  was  too  late  that  at  the  same  time  they 
were  wrecking  the  Revolution,  the  success  of  which 
depended  upon  the  firm  maintenance  of  order  by  force 
during  the  transition  period  which  had  to  precede  the 
organization  of  a  permanent  government. 

The  first  measure  against  Army  discipline  was 
taken  by  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies.  It  was 
called  "Army  Order  No.  i,"  and  its  very  title  implied 
that  the  army  authority  was  not  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  or  the  Minister  of  War  Gutchkoff,  but  a  self- 
constituted  unofficial  body  representing  only  the  work- 
men and  soldiers  in  Petrograd.  For  this  order  the 
Bolsheviks  were  not  specially  responsible.  The 
majority  in  the  Council  of  Deputies  was  then  Social- 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  121 

Revolutionary  and  Menshevik;  the  president  was  the 
Menshevik  Cheidze,  and  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents 
was  Kerensky.  At  this  time  Kerensky  was  also 
Minister  of  Justice  in  the  Lvoff  Cabinet.  This  Army 
Order  was  fatal.  A  few  days  after  it  was  issued, 
I  visited  the  headquarters  of  the  Council  of  Deputies, 
and  found  a  whole  Commission  engaged  in  examining 
and  countersigning  or  annulling  commands  issued  by 
the  head  of  the  Petrograd  District,  Korniloff  and  his 
subordinate  officers.  The  room  was  full  of  slovenly, 
aggressive  soldiers  who  wanted  the  Commission's 
opinion  upon  the  legality  of  orders  of  lieutenants  to 
men  to  clean  their  dormitories,  and  so  on.  At  about 
the  same  time  Kerensky,  as  Minister  of  Justice, 
abolished  capital  punishment,  the  only  means  of 
preserving  discipline  during  War;  and  the  speedy 
result  was  open  mutiny.  On  May  27th,  Kerensky, 
now  Minister  of  War,  and  still  vice-president  of  the 
Council  of  Deputies,  issued  a  Declaration  of  Soldiers' 
Rights,  which  proclaimed  that  officers  and  soldiers 
were  free  citizens;  that  they  might  join  any  political 
party;  say  or  write  what  they  chose;  salute  or  not 
as  they  chose;  discard  their  uniforms  when  not  on 
duty;  and  leave  barracks  without  permission.  By  the 
same  Declaration  the  administration  of  regiments  and 
of  ships  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  elected  com- 
mittees, four-fifths  of  the  members  of  whom  were  to 
belong  to  the  rank  and  file.  This  measure  was  taken 
partly  under  compulsion  of  the  Council  of  Deputies 
and  partly  from  idealistic  motives — the  ideal  was  a 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


free,  revolutionary  army,  self-disciplined,  strong  in 
the  consciousness  of  its  national  and  international 
mission.  No  such  ideal  could  possibly  have  been 
realized  by  soldiers  in  the  state  of  culture  of  Russia's, 
whose  only  notions,  instilled  by  agitators,  were  that 
all  officers  were  despots  and  all  bourgeois  blood- 
suckers. Kerensky,  a  demonstrative  demagogue  with 
no  sense  for  real  political  measures,  did  not  under- 
stand this;  and  if  he  had  understood  it,  he  lacked 
sufficient  character  to  oppose,  or  break  with  the 
Council.  Late  in  July  coerced  by  Savinkoff  ,  and  sup- 
ported by  the  still  moderate  Socialist  majority  of 
the  Council,  which  was  thoroughly  frightened  by  the 
results  of  its  emancipating  measures,  Kerensky 
restored  the  death  penalty  for  serious  offenses  at  the 
front;  but  offenders  were  to  be  tried  by  mixed  courts 
of  officers  and  soldiers.  Although  the  army  was  then 
resorting  to  murder,  violation  and  robbery  wholesale, 
it  was  never  clearly  reported  that  any  soldier  was 
executed  by  such  a  court;  the  only  executions  were 
those  of  officers,  and  these  by  the  simple  process  of 
soldier  lynch-law. 

Long  before  the  nominal  restoration  of  the  death 
penalty  the  garrison  of  Petrograd  got  entirely  out  of 
hand.  Authority  over  it,  as  far  as  there  was  any, 
was  exercised  not  by  the  Ministry  of  War  but  by 
the  Council  of  Deputies.  But  the  Council  of  Deputies 
itself  was  not  supreme.  The  garrison  like  the  Council 
was  divided  into  Bolshevik  and  moderate  Socialists; 
and  the  Bolshevik  soldiers  rioted  and  demonstrated 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION 

in  violation  of  the  resolutions  of  the  moderate 
majority  in  the  Council.  The  garrison  could  not  be 
relied  upon,  not  only  for  Government  policy  but  even 
for  the  policy  of  the  Council.  Under  the  incitements 
of  Lenine,  Trotsky,  and  a  number  of  other  agitators 
many  of  whom  had  come  home  from  America,  the 
Bolshevik  element  in  the  garrison  steadily  increased; 
it  was  supported  by  workingmen  Red  Guards  who 
openly  drilled  with  machine-guns  in  the  Vyborg 
quarter;  and  the  slogan  "Down  with  the  Capitalist 
Ministers"  was  heard  more  and  more  loudly  until  the 
Korniloff  rebellion  gave  the  Bolsheviks  the  final  im- 
pulse and  enabled  them  to  effect  the  November  coup 
d'etat. 

The  Lvoff  and  Kerensky  Cabinets  were  repeatedly 
begged  to  take  measures  against  the  Bolshevik 
agitators.  The  agitators  threatened  that  if  any 
attempt  were  made  to  arrest  them  the  soldiers  and 
Red  Guards  would  turn  out  in  their  defense  and  over- 
throw the  Government.  The  Bolshevik  headquarters 
were  then  the  palace  of  the  dancer  Kshesinskaya  and 
the  villa  of  the  late  Minister  of  the  Interior  Durnovo, 
which  also  sheltered  anarchist  and  Maximalist 
organizations.  In  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution 
the  extremists  seized  both  houses,  and  partly  fortified 
them.  Kshesinskaya  was  the  best  dancer  of  the 
Imperial  Ballet  under  the  old  regime.  Her  relations 
with  the  Tsar  before  his  marriage  were  well  known; 
she  was  supposed  to  be  the  only  woman  who  touched 
the  bachelor  Nicholas'  heart;  and  after  his  marriage 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


she  passed  from  Grand  Duke  to  Grand  Duke,  belong- 
ing finally  to  the  Grand  Duke  Andrew,  a  son  of  the 
Tsar's  uncle  Vladimir.  So  —  not  by  dancing,  for  no 
dancer  of  the  Imperial  ballet  received  much  more 
than  $5000  a  year  —  she  amassed  millions.  Her  jewels 
and  dresses,  and  her  palace  which  lies  not  far  from 
the  Neva,  near  the  Peter  and  Paul  fortress,  were 
known  to  all  Petrograd.  Kshesinskaya  was  absent 
when  the  palace  was  seized;  and  she  never  saw  it  for 
four  months.  Meantime  it  was  the  headquarters  of 
Nicholas  Lenine.  The  Bolsheviks  brought  in  soldiers, 
the  staff  of  their  incendiary  newspaper  Pravda, 
several  committees,  and  a  propaganda  organization. 
For  several  weeks  Lenine  slept  on  the  premises,  and 
from  a  balcony  he  made  agitation  speeches  to  vast 
crowds  of  disbanded  soldiery  and  working  men,  sum- 
moning them  to  march  upon  the  Mariya  Palace,  then 
headquarters  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and 
expel  Prince  Lvoff  and  the  "ten  Capitalist  Ministers." 
To  some  extent  the  Kshesinskaya  Palace  was 
merely  a  successful  bluff.  The  Bolsheviks  proclaimed 
that  it  was  thoroughly  fortified  ;  that  there  were  scores 
of  machine-guns  at  the  windows;  and  enough  rifles 
in  the  cellars  to  kill  half  the  population  of  Petrograd. 
So  when  Kshesinskaya  demanded  her  house  back,  and 
appealed  to  the  Minister  of  Justice  and  to  the  courts, 
the  garrison  answered  defiantly.  The  Government 
was  unable  to  execute  the  Court's  decree  to  eject  it. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  Durnovo  Palace,  and  the  palace 
of  the  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg,  also  seized  by  ex- 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  125 

tremists,  the  Government  had  to  reply  upon  the 
Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
deputies,  in  whose  hands  was  the  real  power;  but 
though  the  Council  had  a  majority  of  moderate 
Socialists  who  condemned  the  seizure  of  private 
property,  it  knew  that  most  of  the  Petrograd  soldiers 
were  devoted  to  Lenine,  and  it  hesitated  to  give  the 
authorities  armed  support.  So  the  citadel  persisted 
in  its  defiance ;  and  from  its  balcony  Lenine  continued 
to  demand  the  overthrowal  of  the  Capitalist  Cabinet, 
the  expropriation  of  private  property,  and  merciless 
class  war  upon  the  bourgeoisie. 

Yet  at  any  moment,  as  I  now  learned  from  personal 
inspection,  a  handful  of  resolute  policemen  could  have 
expelled  the  extremists.  Early  in  June  I  gained  ad- 
mittance. The  Ministry  of  Justice  had  assured  me 
that  this  was  impossible;  and  on  the  day  of  my  visit 
a  general  who  lived  close  by  told  me  he  had  seen  four 
motor  cars  laden  with  rifles  and  machine-guns  being 
driven  to  the  palace  by  soldiers.  The  mere  reputation 
of  the  palace  had  caused  a  local  panic,  pedestrians 
taking  care  to  keep  to  the  other  side  of  the  road  for 
fear  of  bomb  explosions.  In  reality,  the  Bolsheviks 
had  not  even  posted  a  sentry ;  and  any  person  without 
card  or  introduction  could  have  entered.  The  palace 
is  one  of  the  finest  private  residences  in  Petrograd. 
But  keeping  to  their  usual  practise,  the  Bolsheviks  had 
done  their  best  to  ruin  it.  In  a  handsome  white 
vestibule,  with  marble  statues,  were  dirty,  spitting 
soldiers  who  lounged  over  desks  collating  reports 


126       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

which,  they  said,  had  come  from  their  provincial 
organizations;  the  fine  winter-garden  had  become 
headquarters  of  the  propaganda  league,  and  was 
packed  from  ceiling  to  floor  with  pamphlets; 
Kshesinskaya's  bedroom,  of  the  oriental  luxury  of 
which  Petrograd  talked,  was  littered  with  copies  of 
the  incendiary  newspaper  Pravda;  and — worst  shame 
of  all — her  marble  and  tile  Roman  bath,  the  size  of 
a  small  room,  was  half  full  of  cigarette  ends,  dirty 
papers  and  rags. 

On  the  top  floor  was  the  Bolshevik  Executive  Com- 
mittee. The  chiefs  of  this  Committee  claimed  to  be 
Americans.  One,  a  young  Jew,  told  me  that  he  had 
edited  a  Russo-Jewish  newspaper  in  the  East  Side 
of  New  York;  and  he  affirmed  that  Bolshevism 
was  practically  an  American  doctrine;  and  that  until 
lately  it  had  flourished  better  in  New  York  than  any- 
where in  Russia.  Looking  at  me  with  naive  glee,  he 
added:  "We  have  brought  this,  and  many  other  good 
things  from  the  United  States."  Lenine,  he  added, 
"would  certainly  carry  on  the  War  as  effectively  as 
the  present  bourgeois  government,  because  once  he  is 
in  power,  the  soldiers,  inspired  by  genuine  militant 
Socialism,  will  insist  on  overthrowing  the  Kaiser." 
The  other  most  impressive  person  in  the  Bolshevik 
citadel  was  a  middle-aged,  very  clever  and  cultivated 
lady,  who  spoke  perfect  English,  and  announced  that 
she  also  had  come  from  the  United  States.  She  told 
me  that  Lenine  was  absent;  but  that  in  some  days 
he  would  return  and  resume  his  incendiary  speech- 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  127 

making;  and  this  he  did.  The  palace  remained  in 
Bolshevik  possession,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  could 
have  been  seized  at  any  moment.  To  my  remark  to 
this  effect  to  the  Minister  of  Justice,  I  got  the  reply 
that  it  any  attempt  were  made  to  expel  the  Bolsheviks, 
the  whole  garrison  of  Petrograd  would  turn  out,  and 
overthrow  and  perhaps  massacre  the  Government. 
This  incident  shows  how  the  Revolution  was  com- 
pletely in  the  power  of  any  handful  of  men  who 
proclaimed  that  they  had  arms,  even  if  the  arms  were 
a  bluff. 

Similar  conditions  existed  at  the  other  Bolshevik 
stronghold,  the  Durnovo  Palace,  which  I  later  visited. 
This  palace  lies  on  the  banks  of  the  Neva  in  the 
extreme  northeast  of  the  city.  It  formerly  belonged 
to  Peter  Durnovo,  probably  the  worst  of  all  the 
reactionary  ministers  of  Nicholas  II.  It  was  he  who 
initiated  the  repressive  policy  which  crushed  the  suc- 
cessful revolution  of  1905;  but,  apart  from  politics, 
Durnovo  was  a  corrupt  man,  up  to  his  neck  in  dis- 
honest financial  deals  and  espionage  intrigues.  The 
extremists  who  seized  his  palace  and  declared  it  to 
be  a  fortress  of  liberty  against  the  Capitalist  Govern- 
ment were  partly  genuine  Bolsheviks,  and  partly 
anarchists,  backed  by  the  working-class  population  of 
the  Vyborg  suburb  where  lie  many  large  factories 
and  work-shops.  Even  before  the  Revolution  this 
suburb  was  notorious  for  disorder,  and  after  the 
Revolution  it  turned  into  a  nest  of  Anarchism.  There, 
in  defiance  of  the  Government,  drilled  the  Red  Guard, 


128       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

which  terrorized  the  factory-owners,  committed 
murders  and  robberies,  and  daily  threatened  to  march 
into  the  center  of  the  city  and  overthrow  the  Govern- 
ment unless  it  obeyed  the  Bolshevik's  orders.  Again 
and  again  the  authorities  threatened  to  send  troops 
against  the  Palace;  but  on  the  morning  on  which  the 
threats  were  to  be  executed  menacing  crowds  of 
soldiers  and  Red  Guards  began  to  collect,  and  the 
Government  took  fright. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  Palace  was  at  the 
height  of  its  glory  as  a  center  of  extremism.  The 
cobbled  road  leading  to  it,  which  runs  along  the  banks 
of  the  river,  was  reported  to  be  mined;  there  were 
said  to  be  twenty  guns  behind  the  garden  railing,  and 
enough  explosives  in  the  building  to  blow  up  half  of 
Petrograd.  The  garrison  was  believed  to  consist  of 
the  greatest  desperadoes  in  Russia.  But  though  there 
was  some  truth  in  this,  the  Durnovo  affair,  like  the 
Kshesinskaya  affair,  was  partly  an  extremist  bluff. 
About  ten  yards  from  the  gate,  our  motor-car  was 
stopped  by  sentries  and  we  were  told  that  we  could 
not  proceed.  The  garrison,  the  sentries  assured  us, 
had  trained  their  machine-guns  on  the  road ;  they  were 
particularly  frightened  of  motor-cars,  which  might 
contain  Government  troops  sent  to  besiege  them,  and 
there  was  "desperate  discipline  within  the  Palace  itself, 
so  that  if  we  let  you  pass,  we  should  certainly  be 
executed. '  Anyone  new  to  Russia  would  have  been 
impressed  by  this,  but  as  I  and  my  companion  were 
not  new,  we  persisted;  and  at  last  a  civilian,  armed 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  129 

with  a  rifle,  came  from  the  Palace,  and  gave  orders 
that  we  might  pass.  In  this  way  we  got  as  far  as 
the  gate. 

There  we  examined  the  famous  garrison  which  had 
defied  the  whole  armed  strength  of  the  revolutionary 
Russian  state.  The  desperadoes  were  collected  in  a 
shady  garden.  They  numbered  about  forty  men,  none 
of  whom  was  over  twenty-five  years  old.  The 
majority  were  youths  of  twenty.  There  was  nothing 
bellicose  about  them,  except  that  each  had  a  rifle  and 
a  leather  cartridge  case.  There  were  four  machine- 
guns;  but  their  muzzles  were  not  turned  to  the  road, 
and  as  we  later  learned,  they  could  not  be  used  for 
lack  of  belts.  In  the  garden  was  a  motor-car,  whose 
owner,  a  Russian  newspaper  correspondent,  had  like 
ourselves  penetrated  into  the  Palace;  but  the  Bol- 
sheviks had  expropriated  his  car,  and  after  giving  him 
a  not  very  serious  beating,  had  sent  him  home.  Us 
they  treated  more  politely. 

Before  letting  us  into  the  Palace,  the  garrison  in- 
structed us  on  the  principles  of  extremism  and 
revolution.  The  conversation  was  in  English.  Nearly 
every  one  of  the  forty  young  men  seemed  to  have 
come  from  New  York,  or  some  other  part  of  the 
United  States.  They  spoke  the  English  of  men  who 
had  been  a  long  time  in  the  United  States ;  but  owing 
to  lack  of  education  their  English  was  useless  for 
explaining  the  pretentious  Bolshevik  social  and 
political  principles.  The  most  eloquent  of  the 
"Americans" — a  boy  of  twenty-one,  who  took  his 


130       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

rifle  and  leveled  it  every  time  he  heard  a  sound  from 
the  road — assured  me  that  only  at  the  Durnovo  Palace 
was  to  be  found  the  pure  revolutionary  sentiment 
which  was  destined  to  conquer  Russia  and  the  whole 
world.  When  my  companion  asked  "Who  is  the 
commander  here?"  the  youth  replied  indignantly: 
"I  am."  Assured  that  we  were  not  connected  with 
the  Provisional  Government,  he  admitted  us  into  the 
fortress.  This  was  a  medium-sized,  very  comfortable 
country  house,  adorned  with  family  portraits,  which 
the  "garrison"  had  politely  left  intact:  and  full  of 
handsome  old-fashioned  furniture,  which  had  nearly 
all  been  mutilated.  In  the  drawing-room,  looked  on 
by  portraits  of  Durnovo's  ancestors,  were  about 
twenty  machine-guns,  all,  like  those  in  the  garden, 
apparently  out  of  use,  for  they  were  crowded  in  one 
end  of  the  room.  Here  also  were  piles  of  Anarchist 
pamphlets  and  leaflets  with  such  titles  as  "Down  with 
the  ten  Capitalist  Ministers!"  "Peace  and  Bread!" 
"No  more  Fighting  beside  the  Imperialist  Allies!" 
These  were  the  same  inscriptions  as  appeared  upon  the 
banners  with  which  every  Sunday  the  Bolshevik  work- 
men and  soldiers  paraded  Petrograd.  As  we  left,  the 
garrison  handed  us  a  batch  of  these  pamphlets  beg- 
ging us  to  distribute  them  to  the  Cabinet ;  and  assured 
us  that  within  six  weeks  the  leaders  of  the  villa  would 
themselves  either  be  Cabinet  Ministers  or  corpses. 
When  at  last  the  Government  mustered  up  courage, 
and  sent  a  handful  of  Cossacks,  the  leaders  and  all 
their  followers  surrendered  without  firing  a  shot. 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  131 

This  confirmed  my  conclusion  based  on  observations 
at  Kronstadt  and  elsewhere  that  in  the  first  half  of 
the  Revolution  a  resolute  Government  could  have  re- 
established order  at  any  time  had  it  only  been  willing 
to  face  a  very  small  risk. 

The  Bolshevik  agitation  drew  much  of  its  strength 
from  the  incitements  of  persons  outside  the  specific 
Bolshevik  class,  who  ought  to  have  known  better,  and 
in  fact  did  afterwards  bitterly  repent.  The  chief  of 
these  was  the  novelist  Maxim  Gorky.  In  these  months 
I  saw  Gorky  twice.  I  had  first  made  his  acquaintance 
in  1905  after  his  release  from  the  Peter  and  Paul 
Fortress  where  he  had  been  incarcerated  after  pro- 
testing to  Count  Witte  against  the  impending  massacre 
of  workmen  on  Bloody  Sunday.  When  I  next  met 
Gorky  in  April,  1917,  he  had  greatly  changed — in 
appearance,  in  politics,  in  art.  He  was  now  editor- 
in-chief  of  the  Bolshevik  organ  Novaya  Zhisn.  He 
attended  daily  the  office  on  the  Nevsky  Prospect ;  and 
there — very  untidily  dressed,  with  a  sickly  yellow  face 
and  nervous  manner — he  wasted  his  time  on  hack 
newspaper  work.  His  literary  work  had  much  fallen 
off  in  quality;  and  his  newspaper  articles  were  badly 
written  and  empty  of  any  real  political  content.  They 
consisted  chiefly  of  laments  on  the  growing  disorder, 
attacks  on  the  bourgeoisie  and  indirect  incitements  to 
the  Bolsheviks,  which  brought  on  him  severe  con- 
demnation from  responsible  men.  Soon  after  the 
Tsardom's  overthrowal,  he  had  suggested  the  founda- 
tion of  a  Great  Museum  of  the  Revolution;  and  now 


132       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

a  wit  wrote,  "Maxim  Gorky  once  planned  a  Museum 
of  the  Revolution.  He  now  plans  to  put  the  Revolu- 
tion into  a  museum."  Bourtseff,  the  exposer  of  the 
Okhrana,  denounced  Gorky  as  "an  unconscious  Ger- 
man agent";  and  set  him  beside  Lenine,  with  the 
difference  that  no  one  suspected  Gorky  of  being  in 
direct  communication  with  Germany.  In  May  Gorky 
went  so  far  as  to  accuse  the  Foreign  Minister 
Miliukoff  of  being  in  the  pay  of  Anglo-French 
capitalists;  and  his  attacks  upon  the  Allies,  and  upon 
President  Wilson,  were  so  extreme  that  the  Kerensky 
Government  passed  a  law  punishing  such  conduct  with 
imprisonment  in  a  fortress;  and  suppressed  the 
Novaya  Zhisn,  which,  however,  reappeared  under  a 
new  name,  with  a  policy  more  extreme  than  ever. 
Nevertheless,  when  I  saw  Gorky  in  the  early  summer 
he  complained  that  he  was  being  unfairly  attacked 
as  a  defeatist — a  porazhcnets.  The  Germans  watched 
his  antics  with  delight;  and  the  Bulgarian  Minister 
at  Berlin,  Rizoff,  smuggled  through  to  him  a  letter 
full  of  savage  attacks  on  England,  ending  with  the 
suggestion  that  Gorky  should  come  to  a  neutral  coun- 
try for  the  discussion  of  a  separate  peace.  Although 
Gorky's  conduct  had  practically  invited  these  over- 
tures, he  resented  them  as  a  gross  insult,  and  printed 
the  letter  with  a  frantic  denunciation.  This  got  him 
into  a  new  undignified  feud.  He  told  me  that  he 
intended  to  abandon  politics  and  return  to  literature; 
but  this  stage  lasted  a  very  short  time;  and  he  again 
supported  the  Bolsheviks.  After  the  Bolshevik 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  133 

revolution,  he  turned  on  them,  and  attacked  them  as 
savagely  as  he  formerly  attacked  all  moderates.  His 
incitements,  by  giving  a  veneer  of  respectability  to 
the  Bolshevik  agitation,  were  a  minor  cause  of  the 
subsequent  tragedy. 

Bolshevism  undoubtedly  owed  much  of  its  success 
to  the  material  sufferings  of  the  people  of  Petrograd 
and  elsewhere.  In  the  food  question  the  Revolution 
showed  even  less  organizing  power  than  the  Autocracy 
had  shown.  In  Petrograd  white  bread,  and  after- 
wards eatable  black  bread,  wholly  disappeared.  The 
population  was  doled  out  irregularly  quantities  of  a 
mixed  bread  called  "sitni";  but  later  this  became 
scarce,  and  was  replaced  by  ill-baked  sticky  rye-bread 
which  turned  sour  if  let  stand.  Meat  was  almost  un- 
obtainable. For  persons  with  long  purses  there  were 
fish  and  game;  but  the  prices  of  vegetables,  fruit, 
sugar,  tea  and  coffee  rose  to  unheard-of  heights. 
Restaurant  prices  had  trebled  between  the  outbreak 
of  war  and  the  Revolution;  and  in  the  three  months 
after  the  Revolution  they  nearly  trebled  again. 
Plundering  soldiers  sold  flour  taken  from  hospitals. 
The  popular  luxury  was  sunflower  seeds.  Eating  sun- 
flower seeds  is  an  old  peasant  custom;  and  now  the 
Petrograd  streets  were  littered  white  as  if  with  snow 
from  the  husks.  The  first  "hunger-murders"  began 
in  July;  and  grew  in  numbers;  and  in  the  provinces 
whole  families  were  killed  for  the  sake  of  a  loaf  of 
bread. 

The  Revolution  further  disorganized  the  currency. 


134       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Immediately  after  the  outbreak  of  war  the  Bank  of 
State  ceased  redeeming  credit-notes  in  gold.  Silver 
disappeared.  Instead  of  copper  coins  were  circulated 
dirty  postage  stamps;  and  as  the  lowest  stamp  value 
was  ten  kopecks,  for  smaller  sum  the  Government 
printed  "credit-notes,"  some  as  low  in  value  as  one 
kopeck,  or  half  a  cent.  The  Provisional  Government 
had  hardly  any  revenue.  The  vodka  monopoly,  the 
chief  source,  was  stopped  in  1914;  and  there  were 
practically  no  receipts  from  imports.  In  the  first  three 
months  after  the  Revolution  the  land-revenue  as  com- 
pared with  1916  dropped  32  per  cent;  the  city  estate 
tax  41  per  cent;  the  land  redemption  duties  65  per 
cent;  and  other  direct  taxes  as  much  or  more.  At 
the  Moscow  Congress  in  August,  the  Minister  of 
Finances  predicted  a  $7,500,000,000  deficit  for  1917. 
Meantime  the  resource  was  to  print  unbacked  paper. 
The  average  monthly  output  of  paper  money  imme- 
diately before  the  Revolution  was  432,000,000 
rubles;  in  the  first  months  of  Revolution  it  rose  to 
832,000,000  a  month;  and  it  rose  steadily  until  six 
months  after  the  Bolsheviks  came  into  power  it  is 
reported  to  have  reached  3,000,000,000  rubles  a 
month.  When  the  mechanical  work  of  printing  so 
much  money  became  impossible,  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment issued  a  new  series  of  simply-designed  notes 
without  numbers. 

The  Finances  moved  swiftly  in  a  vicious  circle. 
The  flood  of  paper  money  sent  up  prices,  and  the 
high  prices  forced  up  wages  and  salaries.  The  wage 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  135 

of  an  unskilled  laborer  of  Petrograd  which  before  the 
War  was  about  25  cents  daily  had  risen  in  the  first 
months  of  the  Revolution  to  $3,  and  by  November 
it  reached  $5.  Skilled  laborers  drew  $10.  In  one 
Volga  district  barges  drew  $45  a  day.  Employees 
of  the  Putiloff  arms  factory  in  Petrograd  demanded 
increases  of  wages  totaling  $45,000,000  for  one  year; 
and  in  the  Donetz  region  a  group  of  undertakings 
which  had  paid  $9,000,000  in  dividends  in  1916  was 
faced  with  demands  for  increases  of  wages  amounting 
to  $120,000,000.  Workmen  demanded  that  the  rise 
of  wages  should  be  retrospective  because  under  the 
Autocracy  they  had  been  forcibly  prevented  bettering 
their  position  by  means  of  strikes.  On  this  pretext 
one  small  Petrograd  factory  asked  for  a  lump  pay- 
ment of  $6,500,000.  In  May  a  deputation  of 
metallurgical  employers  complained  to  Prince  Lvoff 
that  the  workmen's  demands  would  force  them  to 
close  down.  The  Government  was  faced  by  similar 
demands.  The  increased  allowances  to  soldiers' 
families  demanded  by  the  all-powerful  Council  of 
Deputies  would  have  cost  the  Treasury  $5,500,000,000 
a  year.  The  Food  Distribution  Committees  were  cost- 
ing $250,000,000  yearly,  and  the  Land  Committees 
$70,000,000  yearly.  The  estimated  National  Debt  at 
the  end  of  1917  was  $25,000,000,000. 

During  the  whole  period  of  the  Revolution,  the 
railroad  system  was  hopelessly  disorganized.  This 
was  due  to  wearing  out  of  the  permanent  way  and 
rolling  stock,  and  to  refusal  by  employees  to  obey 


136       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

orders.  The  Government  published  figures  showing 
that  every  week  a  larger  and  larger  percentage  of 
locomotives  and  freight  cars  were  "sick,"  which  meant 
unrepairable,  as  the  state  workshops  had  neither  the 
labor  nor  the  material  for  repairing  the  cars.  A  com- 
plete breakdown  of  the  railroads  was  threatened.  The 
same  state  of  affairs  existed  in  the  street-car  system 
of  the  big  cities.  The  Petrograd  street-cars  were 
ruined.  Every  day  more  and  more  cars  were  taken 
from  the  rails,  and  sent  to  the  repair  workshops  where 
they  remained  unrepaired,  and  the  remaining  few 
cars  had  to  bear  the  tremendous  burden  of  the  whole 
traffic.  The  overcrowding  and  the  struggle  for  places 
on  the  cars  can  hardly  be  imagined.  Passengers  were 
dragged  from  the  cars  with  broken  bones.  They  hung 
on  to  the  couplings  in  front  and  behind.  The  droschky 
system,  once  convenient  and  cheap,  broke  down.  The 
drivers,  in  order  to  keep  life  together,  were  obliged 
to  increase  their  takings  tenfold;  the  excellent  little 
ponies  which  could  be  bought  before  the  war  at  $15 
apiece  rose  in  price  in  three  years  to  $200;  and  the 
shoeing  of  the  horse  cost  the  same  price  as  a  horse 
itself  had  cost  before  the  War. 

The  whole  course  of  the  Revolution  was  an  in- 
effectual attempt  to  stay  this  economical  dissolution. 
The  attempt  was  ineffectual  simply  because  the  War 
was  swallowing  up  greater  and  greater  sums,  and 
because  of  the  sharp  conflict  between  Socialistic  and 
bourgeois  ideas  of  public  economy.  This  conflict 
helped  to  wreck  the  Revolution.  The  Council  of 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  137 

Deputies  made  ever  more  and  more  extreme  Social- 
istic demands  upon  the  first  non-Socialistic  govern- 
ment, and  later  upon  the  mixed  coalition  Cabinets 
which  included  Socialists  among  their  members. 
When  in  mid-May  Prince  Lvoff,  finding  himself  un- 
able in  face  of  the  growing  anarchy  to  govern  the 
country  alone,  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  Petro- 
grad  Council  of  Deputies  for  the  formation  of  the 
first  coalition  cabinet,  he  made  great  economic  con- 
cessions to  the  Left  parties;  but  this  was  not  enough. 
The  Government  in  despair  issued  late  in  May  a 
statement  that  it  was  considering  wholesale  confisca- 
tion of  private  property,  giving  as  excuse  the  failure 
of  the  nation  to  support  war  loans,  and  the  need  for 
stopping  at  any  cost  the  further  issue  of  paper  money. 
The  non-Socialist  ministers  protested  so  vigorously 
that  the  proclamation  was  withdrawn.  Nevertheless, 
confiscation  went  on.  Even  the  bourgeois  ministers 
conceded  that  expropriation  could  not  be  avoided,  and 
that  taxes  of  a  practically  confiscatory  nature  must 
be  enforced. 

At  the  end  of  June  the  Government  took  in  hand 
a  very  promising,  and  somewhat  pretentious  scheme 
for  complete  economic  reorganization — to  include  the 
food  question  as  well  as  the  Finances.  It  decided  to 
establish  state  monopolies  in  order  to  increase  the 
national  revenue,  and  to  create  a  special  state  organiza- 
tion to  prevent  overlapping  of  the  existing  economical 
departments.  To  direct  this  was  to  be  a  supreme 
Economical  Council  with  representatives  of  the  work- 


138       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

ing  and  business  classes  and  members  of  the  Stock 
Exchange.  Like  most  of  the  Revolution's  reforms, 
this  plan  was  alive  only  on  paper. 

Later  the  Government  re-entered  upon  the  course  of 
state  monopolies,  successfully  pursued  by  the  Autocracy, 
which  was  a  cause  of  the  relatively  flourishing  state 
of  the  Finances  before  the  War.  This  was  the  policy 
of  the  great  reformer  Witte.  There  was  proclaimed 
a  coal  monopoly,  which  was  at  first  to  embrace  only 
the  Donetz  Basin  in  Southeastern  Russia.  Monop- 
olies of  tea,  salt  and  matches  were  later  proclaimed; 
and  owing  to  the  disastrous  effect  upon  farming  of 
the  lack  of  agricultural  machinery,  a  government 
trust  was  created  in  these.  But  the  monopolies  never 
came  into  being,  for  the  good  reason  that  there  was 
no  local  machinery  of  government.  The  Revolution 
had  lost  all  power  to  compel.  There  was  no  police 
and  there  was  no  organized  army.  Individuals 
ignored  the  Government's  reasonable  measures,  com- 
plaining that  demands  were  made  upon  them  for 
economical  sacrifices  in  exchange  for  which  they  were 
not  given  reasonable  security.  They  asked  why  they 
should  be  compelled  to  give  up  part  of  their  farm 
machinery  for  public  purposes  when  the  Government 
could  not  guarantee  them  against  the  seizure  of  the 
other  part  of  it  by  the  peasants.  The  weakness  of 
Petrograd  made  it  impossible  to  enforce  the  food  and 
financial  reforms ;  the  failure  of  the  food  and  financial 
reforms  in  turn  increased  the  disorder;  and  this  again 
increased  the  Government's  weakness. 


BOLSHEVISM  IN  ACTION  139 

Nevertheless,  both  the  Governments  of  Prince 
Lvoff  and  of  Kerensky  struggled  on — on  paper.  Their 
taxation  schemes  seemed  democratic  enough  for  even 
advanced  Socialists.  The  old  complaint  of  Russian 
democrats  was  that  there  was  practically  no  direct 
taxation.  Shortly  before  the  Revolution  came  the  first 
"democratic"  financial  reform,  a  direct  income  tax, 
but  before  the  first  instalment  was  collected  the 
Revolution  broke  out.  The  Provisional  Government, 
forced  by  the  Socialists  and  itself  eager  for  democratic 
reforms,  reformed  the  Income  Tax  legislation 
radically.  The  tax  was  made  progressive,  and  raised 
to  30  per  cent  on  incomes  of  over  $200,000;  the  war 
tax  on  surplus  industrial  profits  was  increased  to  60 
per  cent;  and  a  third  law  established  a  supplementary 
progressive  income  tax  rising  to  30  per  cent.  Under 
these  laws  large  incomes  from  certain  sources  might 
have  to  sacrifice  90  per  cent  to  the  State. 

These  taxes  were  never  paid.  The  Bolshevik 
Revolution  of  November  automatically  repealed  them 
by  abolishing  private  property,  other  than  small 
values,  in  Capital  and  Land;  and  a  decree  published 
in  December  annulling  the  National  Debt  relieved  the 
Soviet  Government  of  one  embarrassment.  But  the 
Soviet  Government  is  to-day  without  any  real  mone- 
tary system  for  current  expenditure;  and  its  main 
resource  is  still  the  printing  press.  This  new  money 
is  not  willingly  accepted;  and  numerous  local  Soviets 
as  well  as  the  outlying  provinces  which  do  not  recog- 
nize the  Soviets,  and  even  private  corporations  of 


140       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

merchants,  are  printing  their  own  credit-notes.  Where 
these  notes  do  not  pass  current,  trade  is  done  by 
barter;  and  thus  the  Bolshevik  ideal  of  abolishing 
capitalistic  operations  has  been  attained,  but  only  at 
the  cost  of  disintegrating  the  country's  industrial  and 
commercial  life. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  REVOLUTION   IN   FINLAND 

IN  pre-revolutionary  days,  the  adherents  of 
Autocracy  proclaimed  with  good  reason  that  nothing 
but  a  strong  and  centralized  administration  at  Petro- 
grad  could  hold  together  an  Empire  with  such  racial 
diversity  as  Russia.  The  late  Count  Sergius  Witte, 
though  himself  relatively  progressive,  held  this  so 
firmly  that  he  methodically  worked  for  the  centraliza- 
tion of  all  forces  and  resources  in  Petrograd;  and 
even  opposed  the  creation  of  Zemstvos  in  outlying 
provinces.  This  reasoning  was  sound,  because  most 
of  the  frontier  races  of  the  old  Empire  considered 
themselves  more  civilized  than  the  Great-Russians, 
and  would  certainly  have  used  any  weakening  of  the 
central  power,  or  devolution  of  authority,  in  order 
to  increase  their  measure  of  independence.  No  bond 
of  language,  religion,  culture  or  common  tradition 
bound  to  Great-Russia  the  Poles,  Lithuanians,  Finns, 
Letts,  Ests,  and  people  of  the  Caucasus.  With  the 
Ukrainians  there  was  the  bond  of  religion;  and  had 
the  Autocracy  not  fostered  a  separate  sentiment  of 
nationality  by  persecuting  the  Ukrainian  language, 
Great-Russia  and  Little-Russia  would  probably  have 

141 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

coalesced  without  pressure.  As  things  were,  anti- 
Russian  feeling  was  almost  as  sharp  in  the  Ukraine, 
at  least  among  the  peasants  and  workmen,  as  in 
Finland  or  Poland.  It  was  inevitable  therefore  that 
the  Revolution,  unless  it  possessed  a  disciplined  army 
and  maintained  its  power  and  prestige,  should  have 
to  face  general  secession. 

The  Revolution  in  Finland  is  a  remarkable  illustra- 
tion of  this.  It  was  not  accomplished  by  a  single 
blow,  but  by  a  series  of  political  acts  each  of  which 
brought  the  Grand  Duchy  nearer  to  independence, 
and  each  of  which  registered  a  fresh  stage  in  the 
disintegration  of  power  at  Petrograd.  It  is  probably 
an  example  of  what  would  have  happened  in  the  other 
western  provinces  of  Russia  had  not  the  German 
occupation  and  the  Treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk  done  the 
work  of  detachment  in  a  different  way. 

The  oppression  of  Finland  was  one  of  the  worst 
sores  of  the  Autocracy.  In  his  misrule  here  Nicholas 
II  went  to  extremes  from  which  his  most  despotic 
predecessors  shrank.  Even  Nicholas  I,  though  he 
never  convoked  the  Finnish  Diet,  left  intact  the  Con- 
stitution which  his  predecessor  Alexander  I  had  taken 
over  from  Swedish  times  and  had  sworn  to  respect. 
Nicholas  II  unconstitutionally  legislated  both  in 
Finnish  home  affairs  and  in  Finno-Swedish  relations 
without  the  consent  of  the  Helsingfors  Diet;  he  un- 
lawfully disbanded  the  Finnish  Army,  and  compelled 
Finland  to  pay  a  heavy  annual  contribution;  and  he 
threw  into  jail  or  sent  into  exile  the  country's  best 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        143 

citizens.  This  policy  was  strongly  condemned  by 
Liberal  Russians,  and  the  removal  of  Finnish 
grievances  was  inevitably  one  of  the  first  steps  of  the 
Revolution. 

The  removal  was  done  in  a  thorough  way.  On  the 
2Oth  of  March,  the  Provisional  Government  issued 
a  Manifesto  annulling  all  the  Tsar's  illegal  acts,  and 
restoring  Finland's  Constitution.  The  Manifesto 
promised  further  an  enlargement  of  the  Constitutional 
rights  already  enjoyed.  The  Finnish  Executive  was 
at  once  cleansed.  The  Tsar's  chief  instruments,  the 
corrupt  and  despotic  General  Seyn  and  the  Russian- 
ized Helsingfors  Cabinet,  were  dismissed,  and  were 
succeeded  by  a  Cabinet  of  Finnish  citizens  supported 
by  the  majority  of  the  Diet.  In  the  Diet  of  200 
members,  in  which  women  sit  and  vote  equally  with 
men,  the  Social-Democratic  Party  had  a  small 
majority;  and  in  accord  with  this,  the  first  Cabinet 
(Senate)  after  the  Revolution  was  composed  of  six 
Socialists  and  six  bourgeois  members,  with  a  Social- 
ist, Oskari  Tokoi,  Prime  Minister.  As  Governor- 
General  of  Finland,  that  is,  local  representative  of 
Russia,  was  appointed  Michael  Stakhovitch,  a  stout 
champion  of  Constitutionalism  and  legality,  a  man  of 
great  ability  and  charming  personality,  whose  concern 
for  Finland's  liberties  was  shown  during  the  era  of 
Russian  repression. 

Immediately  after  the  restoration  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  Prime  Minister,  Tokoi,  with  other  represen- 
tative Finns  went  to  Petrograd  to  negotiate  with  the 


144       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Provisional  Government  on  the  details  of  the  promised 
enlargement  of  constitutional  rights.  These  negotia- 
tions were  early  threatened  by  a  dispute  as  to  the  exact 
constitutional  relations  existing  after  the  Revolution 
between  Russia  and  Finland.  The  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment held  that  the  rights  of  the  Tsar  as  Grand 
Duke  of  Finland  had  automatically  descended  to  the 
sovereign  Russian  people  with  all  other  of  Nicholas' 
rights.  At  first  Finland  did  not  formally  challenge 
this  claim ;  but  unofficial  voices  were  raised  to  declare 
that  the  rights  of  the  Tsar  in  Finland  had  simply 
ceased,  and  that  therefore  in  strict  law,  the  country 
was  already  independent.  This  claim  was  based  upon 
old  Swedish  law  under  which  in  the  absence  of  a 
sovereign,  all  rights  were  held  by  the  Swedish  Legis- 
lature. Without  making  this  claim,  the  Finnish  Diet 
provisionally  allowed  Russia  to  exercise  the  Tsar's 
former  right  of  signing  or  vetoing  Finnish  legislative 
bills;  but  it  declared  that  this  must  not  be  taken  as 
a  precedent  settling  the  question  in  dispute.  The 
negotiations  at  Petrograd  went  on  amid  friction, 
caused  by  the  fact  that  Tokoi  demanded  an  even 
greater  measure  of  independence  than  the  Provisional 
Government  was  willing  to  grant. 

When  the  negotiations  were  concluded,  Tokoi 
returned  to  Helsingfors,  and  presented  to  the  Diet 
the  draft  Bill  agreed  upon  with  Russia,  declaring  that 
he  had  got  for  Finland  as  much  as  he  could.  Prob- 
ably Finland  would  have  accepted  this  Bill,  which 
made  the  Cabinet  responsible  to  the  Diet  on  the  most 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        145 

democratic  principles  if  Russian  revolutionary  affairs 
had  prospered.  Though  less  than  Finland  wanted,  the 
Bill  was  more  than  she  could  demand  if  the  assump- 
tion that  Russia  had  succeeded  to  the  former  Tsar's 
rights  was  correct.  But  Russia's  growing  anarchy 
and  weakness  encouraged  Finland  to  demand  more. 
A  vigorous  independence  movement  sprang  up ;  it  was 
supported  not  only  by  the  local  Socialists  who  from 
the  first  desired  to  treat  Russia  with  little  ceremony, 
but  also  by  the  bourgeois  parties.  Both  groups  agreed 
in  agitating  for  complete  independence.  The  dif- 
ference was  that  the  Socialists  wanted  to  enact  in- 
dependence without  Russia's  consent,  whereas  the 
other  parties  desired  that  Finland  should  obtain  in- 
dependence with  the  consent  of  the  Russian  Constit- 
uent Assembly. 

Apart  from  these  differences  as  to  method,  all 
parties  agreed.  The  independence  agitation  was  soon 
formally  voiced  in  a  declaration  by  the  Swedish 
People's  Party  that  Finland,  by  virtue  of  her  high 
culture,  had  attained  a  position  which  entitled  her  to 
rank  among  the  independent  peoples  of  the  world ;  and 
to  achieve  this  aim,  an  "Independence  League"  was 
formed.  Meantime  the  two  groups  began  a  feud  on 
domestic  questions  which  was  an  exact  parallel  to  the 
struggle  between  Russia's  educated  classes  and  her 
extreme  Socialists. 

The  next  stage  in  Russo-Finnish  relations  was  the 
handling  of  the  Bill  enlarging  Finland's  rights,  as 
brought  by  the  "returned  American"  from  Petrograd. 


146       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

This  Bill  was  submitted  to  a  Commission  of  the  Diet. 
Before  it  issued  from  this  Commission,  the  weakness 
of  the  Petrograd  government  and  the  general  revolu- 
tionary disintegration  had  gone  much  farther;  there 
had  been  serious  riots  in  Petrograd;  the  Ukraine, 
which  had  no  such  historical  and  constitutional  claims 
as  Finland,  had  practically  demanded  independence; 
Kronstadt  had  seceded;  and  secessionist  aspirations 
were  being  proclaimed  by  small  districts  and  even  by 
single  towns  all  over  the  Empire.  As  from  the  first 
Finland  wanted  complete  independence,  it  was  in- 
evitable that  she  should  take  advantage  of  Russia's 
weakened  condition,  and  she  did  so. 

The  Commission  returned  the  Bill  to  the  Diet  with 
important  amendments  which  deprived  Russia  of 
several  of  the  powers  reserved  to  her  in  the  negotia- 
tions at  Petrograd.  The  amended  Bill  was  to  be  voted 
on  by  the  Diet,  and  if  passed  sent  to  Petrograd  for 
sanction.  Up  to  this  time  even  the  official  Socialists 
had  not  adopted  the  contention  of  many  individual 
Finns  that  Finland  could  legislate  on  mutual  relations 
without  Russia's  consent.  So  far  this  doctrine  had 
been  put  forward  only  unofficially.  The  amendments 
nevertheless  excited  great  distrust  and  resentment  at 
Petrograd;  and  the  Constitutional  Democrats,  who 
are  very  Imperialistic  and  Nationalistic,  urged  the 
Provisional  Government  not  to  give  its  consent. 

The  Provisional  Government  never  had  a  chance  to 
refuse.  Before  the  amended  Bill  could  be  submitted 
for  the  vote  of  the  Diet,  Russia's  plight  grew  still 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        147 

worse,  and  the  position  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment became  still  weaker.  The  Kronstadt,  Ukraine 
and  other  local  troubles  grew  more  menacing;  Prince 
Lvoff  was  on  the  eve  of  falling;  and  the  Russian 
soldiers  and  sailors  at  Helsingfors  began  to  show  Bol- 
shevik leanings,  indicating  that  if  a  breach  occurred 
between  Finland  and  Russia,  they  might  support  the 
local  Socialists  against  the  hated  Petrograd  bourgeoi- 
sie. The  fleet  had  even  threatened  to  join  Kronstadt 
in  bombarding  Petrograd,  with  the  aim  of  overthrow- 
ing Prince  Lvoff.  Naturally  under  such  conditions, 
Finland's  appetite  for  independence  grew;  but  the 
bourgeois  parties  in  the  Diet  continued  to  recommend 
caution,  persisting  that  it  would  be  better  to  come  to 
an  agreement  with  the  Constituent  Assembly  than 
take  the  dangerous  step  of  promulgating  independence 
by  Finland's  will  alone,  provoking  Russian  resent- 
ment, and  inviting  repression  if  Russia  recovered  from 
her  troubles. 

The  Socialist  majority  in  the  Diet  decided  to  take 
the  risk.  The  Bill  was  returned  again  to  the  Com- 
mission; and  the  Commission  returned  it  to  the  Diet 
once  more  radically  altered,  this  time  in  a  way  which 
practically  expelled  Russia  altogether.  The  re- 
amended  Bill  declared  that  the  former  rights  of  the 
Tsar  as  Grand  Duke  in  Finland  had  ceased,  that 
is,  had  not  descended  to  the  Russian  people;  and  it 
deprived  Russia  of  all  authority  except  in  the  domains 
of  military  defense  and  foreign  relations.  The  main 
new  point  was  that  the  Bill  should  not  be  submitted  to 


148       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Russia  for  sanction  or  veto.  Russia,  it  was  practically 
proclaimed,  had  lost  that  right. 

This  Bill  constituted  a  coup  d'etat.  It  did  not  men- 
tion the  Russian  Governor-General  and  left  him  not 
even  his  decorative  functions.  The  intent  was  that 
he  should  be  sent  out  of  the  country.  The  concession 
to  Russia  on  the  question  of  defense  and  foreign  rela- 
tions had  no  meaning,  for  the  vital  point  of  the  Bill 
was  the  fact  that  it  was  not  to  be  submitted  to  Russia, 
this  meaning  that  Finland  without  Russia's  consent 
could  regulate  mutual  relations.  If  so,  Finland  could 
at  any  time  also  deprive  Russia  of  the  last  vague 
rights  conceded  to  her  in  defense  and  diplomatic 
matters.  If  the  Bill,  said  objectors,  passed  through 
the  Diet,  this  last  link  between  the  two  countries  would 
certainly  soon  be  broken.  The  objectors  were  right; 
for  only  four  months  later  Finland  proclaimed  her 
full  independence  in  international  law. 

When  I  left  for  Helsingfors  the  Independence  Bill 
was  meeting  fierce  opposition  from  two  quarters. 
First,  from  Russians.  The  Bolshevik  minority  in  the 
Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies  supported  it,  mainly 
out  of  a  feeling  of  solidarity  with  Finnish  Socialists; 
but  the  moderate  Socialist  Press,  and  much  more  so 
the  governmental  and  Constitutional-Democratic 
Press,  sharply  attacked  and  even  threatened  Finland. 
They  accused  her  of  practising  the  very  illegality  of 
which  she  had  complained  when  it  was  practised  by 
the  Autocracy;  and  declared  that  if  she  claimed  to 
regulate  her  relations  with  Russia  by  her  own  will 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        149 

alone,  Russia  might  play  at  the  same  game;  and  when 
she  recovered  from  her  weakness,  might  resort  to  the 
one-sided  method  of  settling  relations  which  were 
practised  by  Nicholas  II. 

With  the  exception  of  Kerensky,  who  during  a  visit 
to  Helsingfors  read  a  lecture  to  the  Finns  and 
threatened  them  with  serious  consequences  if  they 
seceded,  the  Government  gave  no  indication  of  its 
policy.  In  fact,  it  seemed  helpless;  it  had  no  reliable 
troops;  and  the  garrison  of  Finland  would  probably 
refuse  to  obey  Petrograd's  orders  to  take  repressive 
measures.  The  Petrograd  Press  bitterly  denounced 
Finland  for  ingratitude,  emphasizing  the  fact  that 
Russian  Liberalism  had  supported  her  in  her  days  of 
trial;  and  that  one  of  the  Revolution's  first  acts  was 
to  restore  all  that  she  had  lost  and  to  grant  her  even 
more.  The  Finnish  non-Socialists — the  Young-Finns, 
Old-Finns  and  Swedish  People's  Party,  together  con- 
stituting nearly  half  the  Diet — also  opposed  the  Bill. 
They  stood  for  independence,  but  still  held  that  it 
should  be  attained  in  agreement  with  Russia.  They 
proclaimed  further  that  the  Socialists  wished  for 
immediate  independence  merely  because  that  would 
allow  them  to  attack  and  destroy  the  propertied 
classes.  The  determining  factor  in  the  dispute  was 
the  attitude  of  the  Socialist  Prime  Minister  Tokoi. 
Although  Tokoi  had  advised  the  Diet  to  pass  the 
Bill  in  the  mild  form  first  agreed  upon  with  Russia, 
he  began  to  waver.  Without  actually  championing 
the  last  amendments,  he  referred  in  a  speech  to  Russia 


150       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

as  "a  possible  ally" ;  and  by  this  aggravated  the  resent- 
ment at  Petrograd,  which  began  to  fear  that  the 
Socialists  in  the  Diet  would  vote  solidly  for  the  re- 
amended  Bill.  And  in  fact  this  took  place.  While 
the  semi-Socialistic  Cabinet  was  still  supposed  to  be 
solid  in  opposing  the  amendments,  and  while  Tokoi 
remained  discreetly  silent,  the  Bill  passed  through  the 
Diet  on  the  first  reading.  Of  the  following  develop- 
ments until  the  final  passage  of  the  Bill  I  was  a  wit- 
ness myself. 

Arriving  in  Helsingfors  from  Petrograd  in  mid- 
summer was  like  arriving  in  Paradise  from  Hades. 
Clean,  well-dressed,  bathed  in  sunshine,  decorated 
with  handsome  statues  and  glowing  with  flowers, 
Helsingfors  resembled  one  of  the  minor  German 
capitals  in  time  of  peace.  Underneath,  conditions 
were  not  so  good.  The  food  trouble,  though  mitigated 
by  Scandinavian  order,  was  even  more  serious  than 
in  Russia,  where,  in  some  parts,  there  was  a  rude 
plenty.  Already  in  Finnish  parishes  peasants  were 
mixing  pine-bark  and  lichens  with  their  rye-bread; 
and  the  daily  portion  of  bread  in  Helsingfors  was 
only  150  grams.  Prices  were  even  higher  than  in 
Russia.  A  room  in  the  best  hotel  which  in  peace-time 
could  be  had  for  four  marks  now  cost  twenty;  and 
for  this  twenty  marks  persons  from  Russia  had  to 
pay  twenty-five  rubles,  for  which  in  peace-time  they 
would  have  got  over  sixty  marks.  This  break  in  the 
exchange  was  due  to  cessation  of  imports.  Before 
the  Revolution  Finland  had  been  exporting  large 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        151 

quantities  of  products,  mainly  munitions,  to  Russia, 
and  getting  nothing  in  exchange.  Uninstructed  Rus- 
sians ascribed  the  fall  in  exchange  to  Finnish  enmity. 
Finland,  in  fact,  was  flooded  with  Russian  paper 
money  for  which  she  could  get  nothing;  her  dealings 
with  Russia  had  caused  her  heavy  loss;  and,  partly 
as  result  of  that,  the  Finns  who  in  the  first  Revolution 
days  had  shared  in  the  general  fraternization  were 
again  thoroughly  anti-Russian. 

Helsingfors  was  quiet.  The  Socialist  Prime 
Minister  had  left  town,  because,  said  opponents,  he 
wished  to  delay  committing  himself  as  to  the  proposed 
coup  d'etat.  The  temporary  head  of  the  Cabinet  was 
a  professor  Senator  Setala,  the  greatest  living 
authority  on  the  Finnish  language.  Setala  belongs  to 
the  non-Socialist  Young-Finnish  Party;  and  he 
denounced  the  amended  Bill  and  declared  that  if  it 
passed  the  Diet,  all  of  the  Cabinet  would  probably 
resign.  I  found  the  Governor-General,  M.  Michael 
Stakhovitch,  also  much  aroused  by  the  Socialist  plan. 
Stakhovitch  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
picturesque  figures  in  Russian  Liberalism.  A  stout, 
almost  Falstaffian  figure,  a  rosy  face,  an  enormous 
beard,  blazing  eyes  and  emphatic  speech  are  combined 
with  whole-hearted  devotion  to  liberty,  with  universal 
education  and  sound  judgment.  Stakhovitch  assured 
me  that  he  was  entirely  friendly  to  Finland;  but  he 
sharply  condemned  the  policy  of  the  Socialist  majority, 
and  claimed  that  Finland  must  not  determine  her  fate 
without  a  prelttr.ivr'vy  p~reement  with  Russia.  The 


152       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Socialists,  he  complained,  had  made  things  worse  by 
threatening  to  force  through  the  Bill  without  the  two- 
thirds  majority  legally  required  for  any  Constitutional 
change.  The  ruin  of  Finland  would  be  the  result. 
Under  the  new  law,  the  Socialists  would  legislate 
against  bourgeois  property  interests;  the  bourgeoisie 
would  refuse  to  obey,  on  the  ground  that  the  In- 
dependence Law  was  unconstitutionally  passed;  and 
as  the  Socialists  had  no  army  or  police  with  which 
to  enforce  their  will,  the  result  would  be  general  dis- 
order; and  Russia  would  have  to  intervene.  Stak- 
hovitch  assured  me  that  as  the  Bill  left  no  functions 
to  the  Governor-General,  he  would  resign  if  it  passed. 
The  day  before  the  Bill  was  finally  presented  to 
the  Diet,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Premier, 
the  "returned  American,"  upon  whose  personal  deci- 
sion its  fate  now  depended  in  great  measure.  Tokoi 
is  certainly  more  a  "returned  American"  than  a  Finn. 
Neither  in  appearance,  dress  or  manners  is  he  like 
a  Finn.  He  is  a  little,  stoutish,  very  dapper  man, 
with  beady  brown  eyes,  small  regular  features,  and 
a  rosy  shining  face,  who  in  no  way  resembles  the 
typical  Socialist,  but  looks  rather  like  a  small  but  pros- 
perous tradesman  of  an  American  country  town. 
Like  the  Anarchists  of  the  Durnovo  Palace,  he  speaks 
fluent  English,  but  it  is  the  English  of  an  uneducated 
man ;  and  when  he  ceased  telling  me  of  his  adventures 
in  the  United  States,  and  tried  to  explain  his  own 
country's  constitutional  troubles,  he  was  entirely  at 
sea.  He  told  me  he  had  spent  ten  years  in  Colorado, 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        153 

California  and  British  Columbia,  at  first  mining  gold 
and  later  engaging  in  small  trading  operations;  and 
that  after  his  return  to  Finland  he  had  engaged  in 
Trade.  He  owed  his  political  authority,  he  admitted, 
to  what  he  considered  "American"  politics,  by  which 
Finns  understood  slickness  parading  as  diplomacy, 
talent  in  organization,  and  the  keeping  of  the  mouth 
tightly  shut  when  necessary.  He  was  now  waiting 
to  see  how  the  cat  would  jump.  He  refused  to  say 
whether  he  would  support  the  Separation  Bill  or 
resign;  he  must  first  study  the  attitude  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  his  party.  This  attitude,  I  learned,  did 
not  depend  upon  himself;  but  upon  a  man  of  very 
different  type,  the  editor  of  the  evening  newspaper 
Tydwies,  M.  Makelin,  leader  of  the  Socialist  Party 
in  the  Diet.  Makelin  I  found  to  be  a  very  untidy, 
grim-faced  and  rude  gentleman  who  spoke  only  Fin- 
nish, and  very  gruffly  refused  to  take  an  interpreter. 
As  he  understood  Swedish,  I  put  my  question  to  him 
in  that  language,  and  he  wrote  down  his  answers  in 
Finnish,  which  I  could  not  understand  when  spoken 
but  was  able  to  read.  The  Socialists,  he  vowed,  would 
pass  the  Bill,  if  necessary  by  unconstitutional  means; 
and  if  the  Cabinet,  including  its  Socialists,  resigned 
in  protest  the  stouter-hearted  Socialists  in  the  Diet 
would  not  fear  to  take  power.  As  Russia  was  help- 
less, she  would  do  nothing.  When  I  asked  him 
whether  he  would  himself  become  head  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  take  the  responsibility  of  fighting  all 
Russia  and  his  own  bourgeois  countrymen,  he  took 


154       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

up  a  very  stubby  pencil  and  scrawled,  "I  am  quite 
competent  to  do  that/' 

The  Bill  went  through.  When  it  came  before  the 
Diet  on  the  following  evening,  the  "returned  Ameri- 
can" rose,  and  in  flat  opposition  to  his  non-Socialistic 
colleagues  in  the  Cabinet,  declared  emphatically  for 
it.  It  was  part,  he  said  of  the  Revolution;  and  he 
could  not  oppose  the  Revolution.  The  Socialists 
thereupon  announced  that  they  proposed  to  observe 
Constitutional  forms,  and  would  not  declare  the  Bill 
passed  unless  it  was  supported  by  the  necessary 
majority.  If  it  were  passed,  it  must  not  be  submitted 
to  Russia  for  sanction.  Finland  alone  must  determine 
her  fate.  The  Bill  passed  by  a  little  more  than  the 
legally  necessary  majority.  So  Finland's  independence 
— on  paper — was  declared  by  Finland  herself.  It  was 
not  realized  in  fact  until  four  months  later. 

In  this  affair  high  drama  and  low  comedy  were 
strangely  in  contact.  The  former  Finnish  Parliament 
House  is  now  used  only  for  committee  meetings ;  and 
the  Diet  meets  in  a  large  private  assembly  hall  in 
the  Government  Street.  This  hall  has  amusement 
rooms  in  the  story  underneath.  Before  attending  the 
fateful  session  I  entered  these  amusement  rooms,  and 
there  found  about  a  hundred  Russian  sailors  flirting, 
dancing,  and  kissing  Finnish  servant  girls.  A  band 
played.  The  sailors  showed  no  sign  that  they  knew 
that  a  great  event  in  Russia's  history  was  taking  place 
directly  over  their  heads,  and  the  lively  Finnish  girls 
seemed  unconscious  that  their  country's  destiny  was 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        155 

at  stake.  The  entrance  door  bore  the  legend  "No 
Soldiers  Admitted."  That  inscription  meant  some- 
thing. The  dancing  sailors  were  well-dressed,  clean 
and  plentifully  supplied  with  money;  not  only  were 
they  highly  paid,  but  they  earned  enormous  sums  by 
doing  repairs  to  the  ships  in  the  lack  of  mechanics, 
and  also  made  money  by  selling  fittings  and  instru- 
ments from  the  ships.  Everything  portable  was  car- 
ried off.  Some  sailors,  apart  from  these  thefts,  earned 
three  hundred  rubles  a  month,  in  addition  to  free 
lodging  and  board.  At  the  same  time  about  the  town 
slouched  Russia's  dirty,  neglected  and  miserable 
peasant  soldiers,  who  received  for  all  their  needs  $1.50 
a  month  and  found  nothing  to  steal.  The  highly 
civilized  Finns,  though  they  looked  down  on  all  Rus- 
sians, tolerated  the  good-looking,  jovial  and  rich 
sailors ;  but  the  inscription  over  the  door,  "No  Soldiers 
Admitted"  meant  that  they  drew  the  line  somewhere. 
The  headquarters  of  the  Baltic  Fleet's  Socialist 
organization,  which  was  largely  Bolshevik,  and  later 
became  entirely  so,  was  the  ex-Tsar's  private  yacht 
the  Polar  Star,  which  lay  at  the  quay.  A  committee 
on  board  directed  all  the  affairs  of  the  Fleet,  only 
occasionally  condescending  to  consult  officers  on 
technical  questions.  The  sailors  alone  determined 
where  the  Fleet  should  be  stationed.  Shortly  before 
my  arrival,  the  Provisional  Government  had  ordered 
it  to  go  back  to  Reval,  which  is  the  chief  naval  base 
in  the  Baltic.  The  sailors  refused.  They  declared 
that  Reval  was  a  skutchny  gorod,  a  tedious  town; 


153       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

there  were  no  gins  to  dance  with  and  only  inferior 
moving  picture  shows.  I  asked  the  head  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  Polar  Star  what  the  Fleet  would  do  if 
the  Diet's  coup  d'etat  of  the  night  before  caused  a 
collision  between  Russia  and  Finland.  Whether  Rus- 
sia could  carry  her  will  or  not  depended  entirely  upon 
her  garrison.  He  replied  that  the  Fleet  would  prob- 
ably support  the  Finnish  Socialists,  as  the  sailors  were 
mostly  Bolsheviks,  who  regarded  the  supporters  of 
the  Bill — nearly  all  Socialists — as  friends  and  natural 
allies  against  the  bourgeoisie.  "They  regard,"  he  said, 
"questions  of  every  kind  as  mere  issues  between 
Socialists  and  non-Socialists." 

During  this  fateful  week  for  Finland,  occurred  in 
Russia  the  great  Bolshevik  riot  and  demonstration 
which  led  to  the  fall  of  Prince  LvofT.  I  did  not 
witness  that  remarkable  spectacle.  The  Kerensky 
Government  which  followed  made  a  bold  attempt  to 
fight  Finland's  pretensions.  At  first,  owing  to  the 
skilful  action  of  the  Governor-General,  Stakhovitch, 
it  succeeded.  Stakhovitch  made  a  patriotic  appeal  to 
the  garrison,  and  temporarily  won  its  support.  Made 
confident  by  this,  the  Petrograd  Government  declared 
the  Diet  dissolved,  and  when  the  Socialists,  objecting 
that  Russia  had  no  right  to  dissolve,  attempted  to 
hold  a  Diet  Session,  the  Government  was  able  to 
prevent  them  by  force.  The  Socialists  persisted  that 
the  Diet  was  still  in  existence,  but  they  illogically 
participated  in  the  new  General  Election,  and  were 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FINLAND        157 

defeated,  with  the  result  that  the  new  Diet  had  a 
small  non-Socialist  majority. 

Before  the  new  Diet  met,  there  were  more  com- 
plications. After  Korniloff's  rebellion  against  Keren- 
sky,  the  Helsingfors  garrison,  like  the  garrisons  in 
Russia,  turned  overwhelmingly  Bolshevik;  and  as  a 
result  of  the  revelation  of  Kerensky's  complicity  in 
the  rebellion  against  himself,  they  withdrew  their  sup- 
port. The  Finns  were  then  able  to  do  as  they  liked; 
and  this  time  the  Socialists  held  a  session  of  the  dis- 
solved Diet,  and  legislated  without  the  participation 
of  the  non-Socialists.  The  Socialists,  just  as  in 
Russia,  determined,  legal  majority  or  no  legal  major- 
ity, to  seize  power,  and  there  were  disorders,  accom- 
panied by  the  murders  of  many  Finnish  citizens  who 
had  committed  no  offense  except  that  of  being 
bourgeois.  The  murderers  were  the  Socialistic  "Red 
Guards."  Against  the  Red  Guards  was  formed  a 
White  Guard.  This  was  a  repetition  of  the  history 
of  1905,  when  Red  Guard  and  White  Guard  clashed 
in  the  streets  of  Helsingfors. 

After  the  successful  Bolshevik  revolution  of  the 
late  autumn,  Finland,  here  all  parties  agreeing,  declared 
complete  independence  of  Russia,  and  her  act  was 
acknowledged  by  the  government  of  Lenine  and 
Trotsky,  in  pursuance  of  their  unqualified  policy  of 
national  self-determination.  The  head  of  the  first  in- 
dependent Finnish  Government,  supported  by  the  non- 
Socialistic  Diet  majority,  was  M.  Svinhufvud, 
formerly  Attorney  General  and  judge,  a  sound  patriot, 


158       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

who  was  exiled  to  Siberia  without  trial  early  in  the 
War  as  punishment  for  resisting  the  Tsar's  oppressive 
and  illegal  acts.  But  Finland's  troubles  were  only 
beginning.  The  Bolshevik  Government,  though  it  had 
recognized  the  independence,  understood  "self- 
determination"  in  its  own  way;  and  considered  it  its 
duty  to  support  the  Socialists  against  the  bourgeoisie. 
The  Bolshevik  garrison,  backed  by  fresh  Bolshevik 
troops  and  Red  Guards  from  Petrograd,  co-operated 
with  the  Finnish  Socialists  against  the  White  Guards ; 
and  expelled  the  lawful  Government.  As  commander 
of  the  White  Guards,  charged  with  the  restoration  of 
the  Government,  was  appointed  General  Baron  Man- 
nerheim,  a  Finnish  aristocrat  and  a  capable  soldier 
who  long  served  in  the  Russian  cavalry  and  won 
several  notable  successes  over  the  Austro-Germans  in 
Galicia.  Being  without  arms  and  munitions,  the 
Whites  appealed  for  Swedish  help,  which  was  refused, 
and  afterwards  for  German  help,  which  was  granted; 
and  in  a  short  campaign  the  combined  White  and 
German  forces  easily  defeated  the  Reds.  Legal  gov- 
ernment is  thus  restored;  but  Finland  has  now  to 
solve  the  German  problem;  she  cannot  get  rid  of  the 
German  forces  before  her  own  army  is  organized, 
without  risking  a  new  Red  revolt,  probably  again 
aided  from  Petrograd;  and  she  cannot  keep  the  Ger- 
mans if  she  is  to  maintain  full  independence  and 
justify  her  claims  to  recognition  as  an  independent 
state  in  international  law. 


CHAPTER  X 

KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE 

DURING  the  July  Revolution  in  Finland  occurred 
the  fall  of  Prince  Lvoff  and  the  elevation  of  Alex- 
ander Kerensky  to  presidency  in  the  Cabinet.  These 
two  events  are  only  loosely  connected.  The  imme- 
diate cause  of  LvofFs  resignation  was  a  violent 
demonstration  in  Petrograd  by  the  Bolsheviks  of  the 
garrison  in  favor  of  the  transfer  of  all  power  into 
the  hands  of  the  Soviets.  The  riot  lasted  for  nearly 
a  week,  and  several  score  persons  were  killed  or 
wounded.  It  took  place  against  the  will  of  the  Petro- 
grad Soviet  itself,  which  still  contained  a  moderate 
majority  of  Menshevik  Social-Democrats  and  Social- 
Revolutionaries;  but,  as  all  through  the  Revolution, 
the  extremists  took  advantage  of  the  reluctance  of  the 
moderates  to  resort  to  preventive  coercion.  The 
Provisional  Government  escaped  expulsion  or  capture 
only  through  the  loyalty  of  the  best  disciplined  part 
of  the  garrison,  mainly  Cossacks.  The  signal  for  the 
outbreak  of  this  revolt  was  the  resignation  of  several 
Ministers  who  refused  to  sanction  the  wide  conces- 
sions made  by  the  majority  in  the  Cabinet  to  the 
Ukrainian  Rada,  which  by  that  time  was  in  a  position 

159 


160       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

to  make  its  own  demands.  When  Prince  Lvoff 
resigned,  he  declared  publicly  that  he  considered 
Kerensky  best  fitted  to  head  the  Government.  That 
he  really  believed  this  is  doubtful.  Kerensky  had  so 
far  shown  no  real  political  abilities.  But  he  was  cer- 
tainly the  most  prominent  politician  in  the  country; 
he  had  survived  so  far  all  Cabinet  changes;  he  was 
still  a  useful  link  between  the  Soviet,  of  which  he 
continued  to  be  a  member,  and  the  non-Socialist 
parties;  and  he  had  a  great  reputation  abroad.  His 
succession  to  the  leadership  of  the  Cabinet  was  made 
inevitable  by  conditions  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  the 
country;  and  LvofT  in  recommending  him  merely 
recognized  that  fact.  The  universal  anarchy  that 
followed  was  also  inevitable.  It  needed  no  active 
blunders  by  the  executive.  But  the  passivity,  con- 
fusion and  wholesale  headlessness  shown  in  the  next 
two  months  were  specific  Kerensky  qualities;  and  to 
understand  them  and  the  Conservative  reaction  which 
they  induced,  a  reader  must  have  clear  notions  what 
Kerensky  was. 

The  writer  first  met  Kerensky  in  April  when  as 
Minister  of  Justice  he  was  facing  the  first  outbreaks 
of  disorder.  The  interview  took  place  at  the  Ministry 
of  Justice  in  the  Catherine  Street.  Into  an  untidy 
room,  in  a  furtive  way,  came  a  very  thin  man  of 
middle  height,  clean-shaven,  with  a  sallow,  unhealthy 
face,  dark  eyes  and  eyebrows,  and  close  cropped  black 
hair  standing  erect  over  the  forehead.  In  manner  he 
was  nervous  and  demonstrative  and  obviously  not 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    161 

sure  of  himself.  He  spoke  a  little  French,  but  on 
this  occasion  used  Russian.  This  was  not  yet  the 
historic  Kerensky.  The  historic  Kerensky  arrived 
when  the  Minister  of  Justice,  after  GutchkofFs  resig- 
nation, became  Minister  of  War;  and  put  on  the 
uniform  which  he  never  took  off  until  he  fled  from 
the  Bolsheviks.  The  uniform,  supposed  to  be  a  Rus- 
sian private's,  was  made  of  rough  Russian  khaki;  but 
in  cut  it  was  not  Russian.  With  no  medals  or  badges 
of  rank,  with  ill-made  breeches  and  puttees  badly  put 
on  over  rough  shoes,  the  physically  frail  Kerensky 
contrasted  picturesquely  with  his  get  up.  This 
dominated  the  various  poses  in  which  he  later  in- 
dulged. Injudicious  admirers,  misled  by  the  windy 
heroics  that  were  all  he  had  of  politics,  liked  to  paint 
him  in  that  most  attractive  role — the  man  with  body 
too  weak  to  contain  his  heroic  spirit ;  who,  hardly  able 
to  walk,  spitting  blood,  sleepless  at  night,  was  joy- 
fully killing  himself  for  his  country's  sake.  In  his 
rough  uniform,  with  his  slight  form  and  ghastly  face, 
Kerensky  reminded  me  of  Sarah  Bernhardt  as  I  saw 
her  in  L'aiglon.  He  supported  this  farce,  making 
clear  to  persons  who  inquired  about  his  health  that 
his  mind  was  superior  to  his  weak  body ;  but  like  most 
poseurs  he  was  not  a  conscious  hypocrite;  and  was 
quite  as  honest  as  were  his  admirers  in  admiration 
of  himself. 

Kerensky's  reputation  in  Ally  country  was  not  the 
result  of  any  ability  shown  in  his  work.  To  the  Allies 
Russia  naturally  presented  a  simple  problem:  there 


162       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

were  good  Russians  who  wanted  to  fight  and  bad 
Russians  who  did  not.  The  conclusion  of  the  War 
in  the  resolute  if  ruinous  way  of  Lenine  and  Trotsky 
was  as  entirely  outside  Kerensky's  range  as  was  the 
efficient  carrying  on  of  the  War.  His  way  was  to 
let  things  drift,  and  where  he  could  not  do  that,  to 
choose  the  line  of  least  resistance;  and  he  professed 
to  stand  for  the  War  because  Russia's  nominal  war- 
making,  though  difficult,  was  easier  than  making 
peace.  To  the  Allies,  with  the  view  above  given  of 
good  Russians  and  bad  Russians,  Kerensky  was 
naturally  a  hero  and  a  great  man. 

This  judgment  was  mistaken.  Although  Kerensky 
made  some  fervent  speeches  to  soldiers  at  the  front, 
yet  such  little  fighting  as  Russia  did  after  the  Revolu- 
tion was  not  due  to  him,  but  to  Korniloff  and  other 
high  officers.  Kerensky  was  the  chief  disorganizer 
of  the  Army.  Being  entirely  lacking  in  political  judg- 
ment, he  shared  fully  the  first  immature  enthusiasms 
of  the  Revolution;  and  he  joined  the  other  Socialists 
in  the  Soviet  in  undermining  the  Army.  He  worked 
at  this  hand  in  hand  with  the  moderate  Socialist  Soviet 
majority,  which  pursued  a  policy  no  way  less  fatal 
than  the  policy  of  the  Bolshevik  minority;  and  only 
when  he  saw  that  his  measures  and  his  rhetoric  against 
discipline  had  torn  the  Army  to  pieces,  did  he  turn 
round  with  the  other  moderate  Socialist  leaders,  and 
vainly  try  to  undo  the  harm.  He  did  this  mainly 
with  speeches  and  proclamations;  but  he  shrank  from 
withdrawing  the  Soviet's  ruinous  "Army  Order  No. 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    163 

One,"  and  his  own  hardly  less  ruinous  Declaration  of 
Soldiers'  Rights. 

Kerensky  had  no  knowledge  or  ideas  about  adminis- 
tration or  about  the  art  of  government  generally.  As 
has  been  made  clear  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the  great 
revolutionary  reforms  were  all  carried  through  or 
planned  during  the  premiership  of  Prince  Lvoff.  In 
the  three  and  a  half  months  in  which  Kerensky  was 
supreme  he  showed  no  instinct  for  sound  political 
action.  That  was  inevitable  from  his  feeble  and 
shallow  character.  Not  only  had  he  no  concrete 
measures — in  that  most  of  the  Revolution's  leaders 
were  weak — but  his  mind  could  not  even  grasp  the 
imposing  political  generalizations  which  replace  con- 
crete measures  with  most  educated  Russians.  The 
qualities  which  enabled  him  to  rise  were  personality 
and  energy;  but  as  these  are  not  specifically  political 
qualities,  they  no  more  equipped  him  to  rule  than  they 
would  have  equipped  him  to  paint  a  picture.  They 
merely  led  him  to  histrionic  prominence  on  the  revolu- 
tionary stage ;  and  kept  him  there  for  a  time. 

Kerensky's  personality  was  marked.  Part  of  it  was 
sham  and  pose,  but  it  was  not  all  that.  He  dominated 
assemblies  in  a  remarkable  way.  The  audiences  at 
these  political  assemblies  consisted  of  true  Russians, 
men  without  resisting  power  or  energy,  whose  self- 
confidence  had  been  crushed  by  centuries  of  despotism 
and  subjection.  They  were  men  made  to  be  dominated. 
When  Kerensky  appeared  upon  the  platform,  made 
frantic  speeches,  gesticulated  and  screamed  in  his 


164       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

harsh  voice,  hinting  at  terrible  things  which  would 
happen  if  he  were  thwarted,  he  seemed  to  cow  his 
audiences.  Consciously  or  unconsciously,  he  knew 
that;  and  his  oratory  developed  into  streams  of 
hysterical  talk  and  wild  threats,  which  he  was  not 
at  all  the  man  to  carry  out.  He  talked  in  a  way  from 
which  the  Autocracy's  despots  would  have  shrunk. 
Although  his  Government  had  behind  it  no  popular 
mandate,  and  had  not  even  much  physical  force,  and 
might  legally  have  been  resisted  by  any  rival  revolu- 
tionary group  that  claimed  to  represent  the  people,  he 
seemed  to  assume  that  he  had  a  divine  right.  He 
practically  told  assemblies  that  he  would  not  tolerate 
resistance  to  his  will.  His  favorite  menace  was  to 
use  "blood  and  iron."  This  second-hand  Bismarckian 
phrase  delighted  him;  he  used  it  thrice  in  a  single 
speech,  reiterating  "I,  as  representative  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, will  use  blood  and  iron."  The  rest  of  his  oratory 
was  on  the  same  level;  the  speeches  were  strings  of 
disconnected,  politically  empty  sentences,  packed  with 
meaningless  adjectives,  and  delivered  with  hysteria. 
No  educated  person  could  read  them  without  disgust. 
Nevertheless  they  imposed  upon  audiences  partly  com- 
posed of  educated  men.  He  held  his  audience's  ear. 
When  interruped  or  challenged,  he  usually  came  off 
best,  even  against  men  of  solid  reputation  and  real 
political  ability.  At  these  he  screamed  and  even 
shouted  rudely  imperative  commands;  and  as  a  rule 
he  won.  This  indicated  that  he  had  a  strong  per- 
sonality; but  it  was  mainly  a  sham  personality  of 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    165 

stage  kind,  for  he  never  faced  real  opposition;  and 
towards  the  Council  of  Deputies,  the  Bolsheviks,  the 
mutinous  troops,  and  the  rebellious  Commander-in- 
Chief  Korniloff,  he  showed  no  real  power  of 
resistance. 

Kerensky's  other  quality — his  energy — was  very 
marked,  though  it  was  in  the  main  confined  to  speech- 
making.  His  campaigns  of  oratory  at  the  front 
resembled  whirlwinds;  and  when  Prime  Minister  he 
worked  at  the  Winter  Palace  eighteen  hours  a  day. 
But  he  accomplished  nothing.  Not  a  single  reform, 
administrative  improvement  or  decisive  executive  act 
is  linked  with  his  name. 

Kerensky's  personal  vanity  took  unheard-of  dimen- 
sions. Even  before  he  became  Prime  Minister,  his 
head  was  completely  turned.  His  speeches  were  full 
of  himself,  his  opinions  and  his  feelings.  Every  other 
sentence  began  with  the  words  "I  as  your  leader," 
"I  as  Chief  of  the  Army,"  and  so  on;  and  at  last 
he  began  to  employ  with  reference  to  himself  phrases 
borrowed  from  the  tinsel  rhetoric  of  the  Autocracy, 
creating  derision  and  disgust.  This  vanity  seriously 
interfered  with  the  nation's  business  long  before  the 
public  were  aware  of  it.  The  first  public  accusation 
that  he  was  suffering  from  swelled  head  came  from 
the  former  Commander-in-Chief ;  the  victor  of  Galicia 
in  1917,  General  Brusiloff.  Brusiloff,  the  best  and 
most  successful  general  Russia  produced  during  the 
War,  was  suddenly  dismissed  from  the  command- 
in-chief  without  any  explanation  being  given  to  him. 


166       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

He  reported  the  facts  to  a  Moscow  newspaper. 
Kerensky,  then  Prime  Minister  and  Minister  of  War, 
had  announced  his  impending  arrival  at  Moghileff,  the 
headquarters.  His  train  arrived  before  the  expected 
hour;  and  Brusiloff,  being  engaged  at  a  Council  of 
War,  did  not  meet  him.  Kerensky  at  once  sent  for 
him;  received  him  coldly,  showing  clearly  that  his 
vanity  was  wounded;  and  next  day  dismissed  him 
without  explanation.  At  about  this  time,  he  moved 
into  the  Winter  Palace,  and  occupied  with  his  wife 
the  bedroom  of  a  former  Tsar.  Towards  the  end,  his 
vainglory  was  a  matter  of  public  ridicule.  The  eccen- 
tric Alexis  Suvorin  published  mock  bulletins  about 
"His  Majesty  Alexander  Feodorovitch  (Kerensky)," 
recording  how  "His  Majesty  deigned  to  receive  the 
British  Ambassador";  and  how  "His  Majesty  con- 
tinued to  be  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  the  subjects 
entrusted  to  him  by  God." 

Kerensky's  weaknesses  were  very  pronounced;  but 
his  critics  went  too  far.  They  accused  him  of  being 
a  conscious  humbug  and  adventurer.  The  Novoye 
Vremya,  referring  to  a  historic  Russian  impostor 
whom  he  closely  resembled  in  face,  declared  that  it 
was  inevitable  "that  Russia  in  time  of  trouble  should 
have  a  False  Demetrius.  Now  he  has  come."  But 
Kerensky  was  not  clever  enough  to  be  a  conscious 
fraud.  He  honestly  considered  himself  a  very  great 
man,  chosen  by  Providence  to  save  his  country.  For 
this  role,  having  a  head  entirely  empty,  he  was  un- 
fitted. But  he  was  too  comic  a  figure  to  deserve 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    167 

enmity.  His  adherents  repeatedly  spread  stories  of 
attempts  to  assassinate  him ;  but  I  believe  that  nobody 
ever  took  him  seriously  enough  for  that.  For  him 
that  was  a  misfortune.  Had  he  died  at  the  climax 
of  his  early  patriotic  speech-making  campaigns,  his- 
tory would  never  have  found  him  out;  he  would  be 
regarded  to-day  as  one  of  Shelley's  "inheritors  of 
unfulfilled  renown" ;  and  the  world  would  be  saying 
"The  Revolution  might  have  been  saved,  the  War 
might  have  been  won,  if  only  Alexander  Kerensky 
had  lived." 

The  attitude  of  the  different  parties  towards  Keren- 
sky  was  clearly  defined  within  a  few  weeks  of  his 
taking  power.  The  Bolsheviks  violently  opposed  him. 
He  came  into  power  with  a  clear  anti-Bolshevik,  re- 
pressive program,  imposed  by  the  July  revolt  in 
Petrograd,  which  had  convinced  all  reasonable  men 
that  the  policy  of  sweet  reason  pursued  by  Prince 
LvofI  must  come  to  an  end.  There  were  only  two 
courses;  either  to  surrender  to  Bolshevism  or  to 
repress  it.  Surrender  was  absurd,  for  the  Bolsheviks 
had  no  claim  to  represent  the  majority  even  in  Petro- 
grad. Repression  was  clearly  justified  against  a 
minority  party  that  had  resorted  to  violence.  The 
new  Kerensky  Cabinet  proclaimed  for  such  a  policy; 
but  did  not  execute  it  thoroughly.  Orders  were  issued 
for  the  arrest  of  Lenine  and  Trotsky,  who  had  both 
disappeared;  their  incendiary  newspaper  Pravda  was 
suppressed;  and  such  leaders  as  were  caught  were 
sent  to  the  Peter  and  Paul  Fortress,  where  they 


168       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

remained  until  the  Korniloff  revolt  set  them  free. 
These  measures  incensed  the  Bolsheviks  against 
Kerensky,  but  did  not  weaken  them.  The  Menshevik 
Socialists  and  Social-Revolutionaries  were  relatively 
well-disposed  towards  him,  because  they,  as  he,  stood 
for  a  coalition  Cabinet  representing  both  Socialists 
and  the  non-Socialist  bourgeoisie.  But  the  non- 
Socialists,  though  some  of  them  entered  his  Cabinet, 
looked  on  him  with  deep  distrust  and  very  little 
respect;  and  a  general  revolt  of  the  bourgeoisie,  sup- 
ported by  chiefs  of  the  Army,  seemed  to  be  brewing 
almost  from  the  first.  The  cause  was  the  growing 
pessimism  as  to  the  prospects  of  reorganization  under 
any  regime  in  which  the  Soviets  and  the  disorderly 
soldiery  had  influence.  With  such  a  system  Kerensky's 
past  had  been  bound  up;  and  to  it  he  was  committed 
for  the  future  beyond  recall.  Several  factors  of  dis- 
integration brought  about  this  pessimism.  First,  the 
increasing  disorder  in  the  Army  and  the  country; 
second  the  financial  and  economic  dissolution  with  a 
threat  of  universal  hunger;  third,  the  threatened 
break-up  of  the  Empire  by  the  secession  of  integral 
provinces;  fourth,  the  treasonable  conduct  of  ruling 
persons  towards  the  War;  fifth,  the  threatened 
deprivation  of  the  educated  classes  of  all  political 
rights. 

In  the  late  summer  the  disorder  among  soldiers  and 
civilians  grew  to  serious  dimensions.  There  wrere  mass 
robberies,  massacres  and  incendiary  fires  in  European 
Russia  and  Siberia;  there  was  wholesale  bloodshed 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    169 

and  rebellion  in  Tashkent,  the  most  important  city  of 
Central  Asia;  and  in  the  eastern  provinces  there  were 
pitched  battles  between  loyal  and  mutinous  troops. 
In  the  west  things  were  worse.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  fleeing  soldiers  murdered,  outraged  and 
robbed.  That  was  the  aftermath  of  Korniloff's 
brilliant  offensive  in  Galicia.  Soldiers  massacred  one 
another;  massacred  officers;  massacred  civilians,  men, 
women  and  children.  The  towns  through  which  they 
fled,  pursued  by  Austrians  and  Germans,  were  given 
up  to  mediaeval  pillage.  The  scenes  during  the  flight 
from  Kalusz  in  Galicia,  the  limit  of  Korniloff's 
advance,  would  be  incredible  were  they  not  testified 
to  by  officers,  civilians  and  soldiers  themselves,  and 
confirmed  in  an  official  report  which  shows  that 
soldiers  in  their  orgy  of  blood  and  lust  did  not  spare 
little  children,  who  perished  in  scores,  carved  elab- 
orately to  bits  in  the  public  squares.  All  decent 
elements  were  shamed  by  these  revelations,  of  which 
the  Germans  took  full  advantage  for  propaganda, 
flooding  neutral  countries  with  "The  Russians'  own 
confessions  of  their  misdeeds." 

The  moderate  classes  were  bitterly  incensed  by  the 
country's  foreign  humiliations.  The  Foreign  Min- 
ister Terestchenko's  attempt  to  combine  a  policy  of 
fighting  besides  the  Allies  with  a  policy  of  "no  annexa- 
tions and  no  indemnities"  failed  utterly.  To  some 
extent,  this  was  due  to  the  fault  of  the  Allies  in  fail- 
ings to  re-state  their  War  aims;  the  Bolsheviks  con- 
tinued to  proclaim  that  England  and  France  were 


170       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

imperialistic;  and  Terestchenko  was  in  an  ambiguous 
position.  Still  trying  to  keep  in  with  the  Allies,  he 
was  obliged  to  make  concessions  to  the  anti-Imperialist 
Left.  How  far  he  was  forced  to  go  may  be  seen 
from  the  Provisional  Government's  manifesto  of  July 
6th,  condemning  the  measures  taken  by  the  Allies 
against  King  Constantine,  and  announcing  that  Russia 
so  sharply  disapproved  that  she  had  refused  the  par- 
ticipation of  her  troops  in  the  expedition  to  Southern 
Greece. 

While  the  Provisional  Government  thus  did  not  get 
from  the  Allies  the  sympathy  and  support  which  in  its 
difficult  position  it  might  have  expected,  it  was  baffled 
by  an  independent  Bolshevik  foreign  policy  entirely 
in  Germany's  interest,  which  made  patriotic  Russians 
blush.  Bourtseff,  the  revealer-general  of  plots,  and 
other  trustworthy  initiated  persons,  produced  proof 
that  the  anti-War  party  was  doing  Germany's  work 
and  sometimes  taking  German  pay.  General  Brusiloff, 
then  Chief  of  Staff,  published  a  letter  declaring  that 
Lenine  was  an  agent  of  the  German  General  Staff, 
and  was  in  connection  with  German  agents  then  in 
Russia.  A  search  made  at  the  office  of  Lenine's 
newspaper  Pravda  revealed  letters  from  Germans  at 
Haparanda  on  the  Swedish  frontier.  Many  German 
agents  were  arrested.  A  raid  made  upon  a  supposed 
Petrograd  hospital  brought  out  the  fact  that  the 
manageress,  doctors  and  some  of  the  patients  were 
German  agents;  and  one  of  the  sick  men  proved  to 
be  a  German  officer.  The  hospital  was  in  direct  con- 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    171 

nection  with  the  Bolsheviks.  The  patriotic  newspapers 
published  lists  to  show  that  the  Bolshevik  leaders, 
all  of  whom  used  Russian  surnames,  were  really 
named  Rosenbaum,  Goldmann,  Apfelbaum,  Bron- 
stein  (that  is  Trotsky)  Katz  and  Nachamkes.  A 
proclamation  by  Kerensky  revealed  the  fact  that  Ger- 
man agents  were  responsible  for  the  disorders  on  the 
warships  at  Kronstadt,  Helsingfors  and  Reval,  Rus- 
sia's chief  naval  port  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland. 
Naturally,  no  German  intrigues  could  have  caused 
the  collapse  of  Russia's  diplomacy,  army  and  navy 
had  not  the  necessary  conditions  of  collapse  already 
existed,  and  in  this  respect  it  is  a  mistake  to  ascribe 
Russia's  surrender  to  German  intrigue;  the  Germans, 
however,  had  thoroughly  studied  the  Russian  political 
soil;  and  they  now  cultivated  it  with  great  success. 

Although  the  majority  of  the  propertied  and 
educated  classes  had  lost  all  enthusiasm  for  the  War, 
and  doubted  whether  it  could  be  won,  they  took  a 
normal  patriotic  view  of  their  country,  were  proud 
of  its  great  area  and  population,  and  were  not  ready 
to  have  it  dismembered  in  the  name  of  "self-determina- 
tion." The  revelation  that  this  dismemberment  was 
being  effected  by  German  agents  helped  by  a  clique  of 
internationalist  so-called  "Russians,"  hardly  one  of 
whom  was  a  Russian  by  race,  caused  a  fierce  revul- 
sion; and  a  strong  desire  was  shown  to  throw  out 
the  misruling  classes  in  Petrograd.  This  revulsion 
was  accelerated  by  revelations  about  the  Minister  of 
Agriculture,  Tchernoff.  Before  the  Revolution 


172       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Tchernoff,  it  appeared,  had  been  a  contributor  to 
newspapers  printed  in  Russian  by  the  German  General 
Staff  with  the  aim  of  seducing  Russian  soldiers  from 
their  allegiance.  The  ambiguous  attitude  of  the 
Kerensky  Government  toward  this  charge  made  things 
worse.  After  itself  making  the  revelations  about 
Tchernoff,  the  Government,  threatened  by  the  min- 
ister's Social-Revolutionary  supporters,  tried  to  hush 
matters  up;  and  at  last  it  whitewashed  Tchernoff  in 
a  communique  which  few  believed. 

The  educated  classes  were  enraged  by  the  demand 
of  the  extreme  Left  for  the  abolition  of  the  Duma 
and  the  Council  of  the  Empire.  For  reasons  already 
given  in  Chapter  V,  the  Left  revolutionaries  never 
recognized  the  Duma  after  the  Revolution;  and 
officially  the  Duma  was  never  convoked.  The  Petro- 
grad  Council  of  Deputies  by  occupying  the  Duma 
buildings  laid  emphasis  on  its  claim  to  be  the  only 
Parliament  Russia  possessed.  But  private  meetings 
of  the  Duma  were  held,  in  which  participated  most 
of  the  country's  ablest  men,  and  the  champions 
of  Constitutionalism  in  pre-revolutionary  times. 
Speakers  made  violent  attacks  upon  the  Petrograd 
Soviet,  "a  mob,"  one  speaker  said,  "of  murderers, 
lunatics  and  traitors."  The  extremists  retorted  by 
demanding  that  the  Duma  should  not  even  meet 
privately,  and  added  that  the  best  way  to  prevent  this 
was  formally  to  abolish  the  Duma — and  also  the 
Council  of  the  Empire — as  institutions.  Led  by  its 
speaker,  the  veteran  Rodzianko,  the  Duma  passed  a 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE    173 

resolution  declaring  that  it  would  defy  any  such  de- 
cree. It  was  the  one  permanent  center  of  moderate 
and  pro-war  opinion;  and  the  assault  upon  it,  aggra- 
vated by  a  demand  for  the  exclusion  of  the  bourgeoisie 
from  all  political  power,  tended  to  solidify  this  class, 
and  intensify  its  desire  for  a  change. 

The  passive  revolt  which  began  about  July  was 
backed  by  three  elements.  First  was  the  moderate 
Liberal  element,  consisting  mainly  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Democratic  Party,  which  may  to  a  large  extent 
be  identified  with  the  Duma.  The  Constitutional- 
Democratic  Party,  or  "Party  of  National  Freedom," 
was  before  the  Revolution  the  greatest  party  of  Rus- 
sia. It  represented  the  "Intelligentsiya" — the  profes- 
sional classes,  the  university  professors,  part  of  the 
business  men,  and  the  great  mass  of  those  officials  who 
being  obscure  and  having  no  chance  of  preferment 
were  not  reactionary  by  program.  The  party  con- 
tains undoubtedly  the  ablest  heads  in  Russia;  to  it 
are  mainly  due  the  reforming  laws  prepared  before 
the  Revolution  and  passed  after  it  by  Prince  LvofT; 
its  political  program  is,  roughly,  English  or  Ameri- 
can; and  it  was  inclined  for  a  Constitutional  Mon- 
archy until  the  extreme  Left  made  it  plain  that  they 
would  not  tolerate  a  monarchy  in  any  shape.  The 
party  then  proclaimed  for  a  republic.  In  foreign 
policy  it  was  frankly  Imperialistic  before  the  Revolu- 
tion; and  after  the  Revolution,  Imperialistic  in  secret. 
Against  the  Kerensky  anarchy  the  Constitutional- 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


Democratic  Party  was  now  in  full  revolt,  though  some 
of  its  members  still  remained  in  the  cabinet. 

Joined  with  the  Constitutional-Democrats  in  revolt 
were  the  adherents  of  the  "Moscow  Industrial 
Group."  Moscow,  by  far  the  most  important  indus- 
trial and  financial  center  of  the  Empire,  has  an  ex- 
tremely powerful  class  of  merchant  princes,  a  great 
many  of  them  peasants  by  origin,  mostly  characterized 
by  moderate  Liberalism  in  politics,  great  practical 
sense,  and  intense  devotion  to  their  own  business  in- 
terests. The  Industrial  Group,  whose  most  prominent 
leader  was  the  Revolution's  first  Minister  of  Trade, 
M.  Konovaloff,  was  embittered  by  the  failure  of 
Petrograd.  Konovaloff  and  his  friends  made  many 
pronouncements,  declaring  that  the  Empire  was  on  the 
verge  of  ruin,  and  demanding  immediate  measures 
for  the  betterment  of  the  finances  and  the  restoration 
of  order  in  the  factories.  The  weak  Kerensky  Gov- 
ernment did  nothing.  From  July  on,  the  Industrial 
Group  was  prepared,  at  least  in  theory,  to  support  any 
move  to  replace  the  Kerensky  Government  by  a  Gov- 
ernment pledged  to  moderate  reform  and  recon- 
struction. 

The  third  element  which  it  seemed  could  be  counted 
upon  for  a  revolt  was  Cossackdom.  Early  in  July 
the  Don  Cossacks,  the  largest  of  all  Cossack  groups, 
had  elected  as  their  Ataman  General  Kaledine,  who 
was  destined  to  become  famous  as  one  of  the  sup- 
porters of  Korniloff  in  the  rebellion  of  September, 
and  was  afterwards  the  chief  military  opponent  of 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE  175 

the  Bolsheviks.  In  the  summer  the  Cossacks  were 
looked  upon  as  a  solid  element  to  be  counted  on 
against  the  extremist  Left.  Weeks  before,  they  had 
held  meetings  at  Petrograd  and  elsewhere  and  pro- 
claimed their  desire  to  help  the  Government  in  restor- 
ing order,  and  their  determination  to  fight  the  War 
to  a  triumphant  finish. 

As  the  Cossacks  preserved  discipline  and  as  they 
were  the  sole  coherent  military  force  in  the  Empire, 
it  caused  surprise  that  when  the  tussle  came  they 
achieved  so  little  against  the  undisciplined,  unofficered 
and  incapable  Bolsheviks.  That  this  must  be  so  was 
plain  from  an  examination  of  the  Cossack  question 
made  by  me  at  the  time.  The  Cossacks,  it  is  true, 
are  on  the  whole  a  moderate  and  conservative  element. 
They  might  have  been  counted  on  as  anti-Bolshevik 
to  a  certain  extent,  but  not  altogether.  Like  all  the 
working  classes  and  peasants  in  the  Empire,  they  are 
extremely  progressive.  Like  the  peasants,  they  are 
Socialists.  Their  quarrel  with  the  Left  extremists 
was  not  on  the  question  of  Socialism  or  non-Socialism, 
but  on  the  intimate  question  of  land,  the  vital  question 
everywhere.  The  Cossacks  on  the  average  are  far 
more  prosperous  than  the  poverty-stricken  moujiks  of 
Russia  proper.  They  have  more  horses  and  much 
more  land.  Therefore,  they  distrusted  the  Bolsheviks, 
who  wanted  to  cut  up  and  distribute  among  the  land- 
less peasants  not  only  all  large  proprietorial  estates, 
but  also  all  peasant  farms  larger  than  the  average. 
In  many  fiery  speeches  Lenine  declared  that  the  main 


176       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

enemy  of  the  poor  peasant  was  not  the  great  landed 
proprietor,  but  the  prosperous  peasant,  who  was  the 
worst  land-grabber.  The  Cossacks  feared  that  the 
Bolsheviks  would  not  only  deprive  them  of  their  sur- 
plus acreage  of  land,  but  would  give  land-holding 
rights  to  the  many  non-Cossack  peasants  settled  in 
Cossack  territory  and  this  would  lead  to  general  im- 
poverishment of  the  whole  "Cossack  Army."  There- 
fore the  more  prosperous  Cossacks  took  up  a  more  or 
less  bourgeois  attitude. 

Had  this  been  so  with  all  Cossacks,  we  should  have 
had  about  four  million  thoroughly  disciplined  men 
to  fight  the  extremists.  In  that  case,  the  Bolsheviks 
could  never  have  kept  mastery.  But  in  fact  the  Cos- 
sacks are  not  solid.  The  landless  Cossacks  and  the 
very  poor  Cossacks  are  just  as  "proletarian"  in  their 
ideas  as  are  the  landless  peasants  and  the  urban  work- 
ing men.  These  poor  Cossacks  were  strongly  repre- 
sented in  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Deputies.  Thus  while  a  Council  claiming  to 
represent  all  the  Cossacks  was  meeting  at  Petrograd 
and  declaring  to  the  world  that  it  would  help  to  crush 
Lenine  and  the  Red  Guard,  another  Cossack  body 
was  declaring  that  the  Council  was  a  fraud  because 
it  did  not  represent  all  the  Cossacks  but  only  the  rich 
minority,  while  the  rank  and  file  of  Cossacks,  it  was 
alleged,  were  solid  with  the  Socialist  working  men. 
In  September,  General  Kaledine  told  me  that  this  was 
the  case.  He  regretted  it.  "There  is  no  other  body 
in  the  Empire,"  he  said,  "which  can  be  relied  upon 


KERENSKY  AND  THE  BOURGEOISIE  177 

to  carry  out  its  leader's  orders.  We  only  have  dis- 
cipline. We  are  the  one  real  military  force.  But  I 
cannot  pretend  that  all  Cossacks  agree  on  one  policy. 
If  they  did,  they  would  be  irresistible."  Kaledine's 
judgment  proved  to  be  right;  for  a  great  many  Cos- 
sacks deserted  Kerensky  when  he  was  attacked  by 
the  Bolsheviks;  and  Kaledine  himself  has  had  no  solid 
Cossack  support.  The  Korniloff  rebellion  in  Septem- 
ber had  detached  many  Cossacks  from  the  bourgeois 
or  moderate  parties.  The  dread  of  "counter-revolu- 
tion," as  among  the  line  soldiers,  was  the  cause. 

Yet  before  the  middle  of  August  there  was  a  great, 
and  relatively  solid  mass  of  Russians  against  the 
feeble  Kerensky  Government  and  against  the  principle 
of  a  coalition,  or  partly  bourgeois  and  partly  Socialist, 
Cabinet,  a  Cabinet  system  which,  though  first  tried 
by  Prince  Lvoff,  had  particular  attractions  for 
Kerensky  owing  to  his  dread  of  being  thrown  into 
sharp  opposition  to  any  class.  Although  these  dis- 
contented Russians  were  not  reactionaries  in  the  old 
sense  of  the  word,  they  were  conservative  enough  as 
a  whole  to  gain  the  label  of  reactionaries  from  the 
suspicious  Left;  and  their  agitation  was  denounced 
in  the  Socialist  Press  as  a  counter-revolutionary  plot, 
the  secret  aim  of  which  was  to  restore  Capitalism  and 
Monarchy.  In  this  way  were  accumulated  materials 
for  the  staging  of  the  next  two  Revolution  acts,  the 
State  Congress  of  Moscow  and  the  rebellion  of 
Korniloff. 


CHAPTER  XI 

KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW 

THE  Moscow  State  Congress  met  in  the  last  days 
of  August.  It  had  been  summoned  because,  in  default 
of  an  elected  Parliament,  it  was  hoped  that  a  tem- 
porary assembly  of  notables  would  find  means  for 
extricating  the  country  from  a  position  that  had  now 
become  threatening.  The  Congress  was  to  "save 
Russia."  The  prospects  of  success  in  this  were  never 
very  great.  Already  in  July,  in  the  gorgeous  green 
and  gold  Malachite  Hall  of  the  Winter  Palace,  had 
been  held  the  same  kind  of  Congress,  with  fewer 
participants;  and  at  this  the  nation's  perilous  state 
was  debated  with  fervid  eloquence  and  glittering 
generalities;  but  no  decision  was  made  except  a 
vague  decision  to  support  the  Kerensky  coalition 
system.  The  vital  problem — the  creation  of  "a  strong 
governmental  power"  remained  unsolved.  And  now 
in  the  Moscow  Grand  Theater,  one  of  the  biggest 
in  Europe,  the  Malachite  Hall  gathering  was  to  be 
repeated  by  two  thousand  invited  persons.  For  rea- 
sons plain  from  the  preceding  chapter,  it  was  foreseen 
that  this  Congress  would  be  nothing  but  a  feud,  more 
or  less  veiled,  between  the  Kerensky  Cabinet,  backed 

178 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  179 

by  the  Soviet,  and  the  discontented  bourgeoisie.  That 
being  so,  no  vital  change  could  be  expected;  because 
the  Cabinet  itself  had  selected  the  participators  and 
sent  out  the  invitations;  and  there  was  a  marked 
numerical  predominance  of  the  parties  of  the  Left. 

The  Congress  nevertheless  was  representative.  No 
Russian  of  distinction  was  ignored.  There  were 
famous  Duma  politicians;  leaders  of  the  Industrial 
Group,  of  the  Zemstvos,  of  the  Cities,  of  the  Church, 
of  Science,  of  Art;  many  delegates  from  the  metro- 
politan and  provincial  Councils  of  Deputies;  and 
delegates  from  the  Army  and  from  the  Army  Com- 
mittees which  were  then  all-powerful  at  the  front. 
The  sum  of  talent  and  influence  was  great.  The 
Congress,  however,  was  much  too  large  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  concrete  problems;  and  as  the  members 
had  not  been  elected,  they  had  no  mandate  to  settle 
these  problems  by  vote.  No  resolutions  were,  in  fact, 
put;  and  the  Congress,  as  far  as  it  expressed  any 
opinion,  did  so  by  acclamation.  From  this,  as  was 
intended,  the  Kerensky  Cabinet  profited,  the  greater 
volume  of  acclamation  being  always  on  its  side. 

On  the  Saturday  morning  on  which  the  Congress 
opened,  Moscow  was  crowded  not  only  with  hundreds 
of  participants  and  lookers-on,  but  also  with  many 
thousand  ecclesiastics,  laymen,  and  peasants  who  had 
come  for  the  great  Congress  of  the  Orthodox  Church 
which  was  to  be  held  at  the  same  time.  Rumors 
of  impending  violence  by  the  Bolsheviks,  who  had 
been  excluded,  had  gone  round  the  City;  and  against 


180       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

the  "bourgeois  assembly,"  Moscow's  workmen  pro- 
claimed a  one  day  general  strike.  The  authorities 
were  frightened.  The  Grand  Theater,  a  detached, 
white  building  with  Ionic  columns,  was  isolated  by 
troops,  and  guarded  inside  by  Junkers,  young  men 
of  the  educated  classes  studying  for  the  rank  of  officer, 
upon  whom  the  Government,  threatened  by  the  Bol- 
shevik soldiery,  believed  it  could  rely.  In  the  garden 
in  front  of  the  theater,  in  the  vestibules,  on  the  stair- 
cases and  even  in  the  auditorium  itself  Junkers,  in 
a  way  new  to  negligent  Russia,  examined  tickets 
thoroughly.  My  own  ticket  was  examined  at  least 
ten  times  before  I  got  inside  the  theater.  The  cellars 
were  occupied  by  armed  men,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  pass  from  one  anteroom  to  another  without  giving 
fresh  proof  of  identity. 

The  auditorium  was  sharply  divided  between  the 
opposing  groups,  so  that  even  persons  new  to  Russia 
could  tell  that  a  clash  was  coming  between  Socialists 
and  bourgeoisie.  On  the  right  sat  Duma  members, 
leaders  of  the  Industrial  Group,  army  officers  and  the 
"Intelligentsiya"  generally,  all  extremely  embittered 
with  Kerensky  and  with  the  Councils  of 'Deputies,  which 
they  regarded  as  the  ruiners  of  Russia.  On  the  left  sat 
the  Socialists,  delegates  of  the  Councils  of  Deputies, 
soldiers  and  representatives  of  the  Army  Committees 
who  had  come  from  the  front  as  counterweight 
to  the  Korniloffite  officers.  The  factions  glared  at 
one  another  across  the  theater;  and  it  seemed  that 
for  the  first  time  since  the  Revolution  Russia  had 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  181 

a  clear-cut  issue  and  two  coherent  parties.  And 
this  was,  temporarily,  so.  The  Congress  developed 
into  a  series  of  giant  demonstrations  and  counter- 
demonstrations  between  the  Kerensky  group,  with  the 
Socialists  and  the  soldiers  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
non-Socialist  political  parties  and  the  officers  on  the 
other.  Each  group  kept  silence  when  an  enemy  spoke 
and  cheered  wildly  during  a  friend's  speech.  In  such 
conditions,  serious  debate  was  impossible;  the  very 
few  concrete  proposals  brought  up  received  no  atten- 
tion. Lamentations  on  the  country's  ruin,  and 
restatements  of  old  platforms  and  policies  occupied 
most  of  four  days;  and  when  the  Congress  broke  up, 
things  were  in  the  same  condition  as  before  it  met, 
with  one  exception.  The  eagerness  of  the  educated 
classes  and  of  the  army  leaders  to  overthrow  the 
Kerensky  system,  and  their  aversion  to  any  Cabinet 
dependent  upon  the  Petrograd  Soviet,  had  for  the  first 
time  been  made  plain. 

The  Congress  opened  with  a  very  long,  very  frothy, 
and  entirely  meaningless  speech  by  Kerensky,  full  of 
references  to  his  position  and  powers.  This  was 
followed  by  statements  from  other  ministers,  each 
describing  the  anarchy  in  his  own  department,  but 
all  without  new  definite  suggestions  for  reform.  The 
absence  of  reform  propositions  showed  that  ministers 
understood  where  the  real  evil  lay.  The  Government 
had  no  power;  and  the  demand  for  creation  of  "a 
strong  government  power"  was  a  matter  on  which 
both  sides  of  the  Congress  agreed.  Of  reforms  on 


182       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

paper  Russia  had  had  enough ;  and  a  policy  in  regard 
to  the  War,  even  if  an  unsatisfactory  policy,  she  had 
also;  but  her  Government  continued  to  be  unable  to 
enforce  its  decrees;  and  anarchy  at  home  and  defeat 
abroad  were  the  results.  The  Congress  dispersed 
without  doing  anything  to  create  this  "strong  power." 
Such  power  could  not  have  been  created  unless  the 
Socialist  leaders  consented  to  the  restoration  of  dis- 
cipline in  the  Army  by  sanguinary  measures.  To 
enter  upon  this  course  in  defiance  of  his  Socialist 
colleagues  Kerensky  had  not  the  necessary  nerve.  And 
the  bourgeois  minority  of  the  Congress  believed  that 
if  the  work  was  to  be  done  at  all  it  must  be  done 
by  military  men,  of  whom  by  far  the  most  prominent 
and  respected  was  the  Commander-in-Chief  Korniloff. 
The  swift  rise  of  Korniloff  is  a  romance  which  has 
hardly  been  paralleled  in  Russia  since  the  eighteenth 
century  when  a  fisherman's  son  from  Lake  Ladoga, 
Michael  Lomonosoff,  rose  by  native  genius  to  be 
leader  of  the  Empire's  new  literature  and  science. 
Forty-six  years  ago,  in  an  obscure  village  of  West 
Siberia,  to  a  retired  lieutenant  of  Karalinsk  Cossacks, 
was  born  the  son,  christened  Laurus,  who  for  a  second 
time  made  the  name  Korniloff  famous.  The  first 
Korniloff  was  a  naval  officer  who,  entrusted  during 
the  Crimean  War  with  the  defense  of  Sevastopol,  sank 
his  hopelessly  inferior  fleet  in  the  mouth  of  the  bay, 
and  defended  the  fortress  for  a  year.  The  retired 
Cossack  lieutenant  of  Siberia  was  so  poor  that  he 
had  to  earn  a  living  as  village  clerk;  and  Laurus  got 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  183 

very  little  schooling.  Industry  and  zeal  were  his 
tutors.  By  his  own  efforts,  he  secured  admission  to  the 
Michailovsky  Artillery  School  in  Petrograd,  where  he 
amazed  his  teachers  by  his  talent  for  languages  and 
mathematics.  He  had  already  displayed  revolutionary 
leanings;  and  this  soon  came  to  the  knowledge  of 
his  teachers.  This  under  the  Tsardom  meant  imme- 
diate expulsion ;  but  Korniloff  had  earned  such  respect 
that  the  school  authorities  pretended  not  to  notice 
what  was  going  on ;  and  the  artillery  student,  a  revolu- 
tionary at  heart,  a  few  years  later  entered  a  Petrograd 
guards  regiment. 

Being  penniless,  Korniloff  was  obliged  to  go  in 
search  of  adventure  to  Turkestan.  There  he  set  him- 
self to  explore  and  study  and  to  acquire  local  dialects, 
and  he  did  this  so  well  that  in  a  short  time  he  was 
taken  for  a  Turcoman.  Physically  this  disguise  was 
not  difficult.  Like  many  Cossacks,  he  had  a  dash  of 
Tartar  or  Mongol  blood  which  is  shown  in  a  slight 
frame,  a  tight  yellowish  skin,  a  sparse  black  beard, 
very  high  cheek  bones  and  distinctly  oblique  brown 
eyes.  The  local  Mohammedans  worshiped  him;  and 
from  those  days  on  he  was  seldom  seen  without  his 
bodyguard  of  Tekke  Turcomans,  fierce  horsemen  in 
terrific  black  busbies,  long  striped  garments  resem- 
bling dressing  gowns,  and  yellow  boots,  who  except 
for  their  enormous  stature  were  very  like  Korniloff 
himself. 

Korniloff  was  next  attached  to  the  Siberian  army, 
which  before  the  Japanese  war  was  a  military  unit 


184       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

independent  of  the  main  army  of  Russia.  In  the 
war  of  1904-5  he  did  brilliant  work.  When  the 
tremendous  Japanese  attacks  hurled  Kuropatkin's 
army  out  of  Mukden,  it  was  Korniloff  who  fought 
the  rear-guard  action,  and  he  did  this  so  well  that 
he  saved  one  of  Kuropatkin's  three  armies  from 
annihilation.  His  success  was  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  exposed  himself,  setting  an  example  to  his 
soldiers.  He  narrowly  escaped  falling  into  the 
enemy's  hands.  For  that  he  was  rewarded  with  the 
Cross  of  St.  George,  and  with  a  golden  sword  per- 
sonally presented  by  the  Tsar. 

After  the  Japanese  War,  Korniloff  was  sent  as 
military  agent  to  Pekin.  There  he  mastered  Chinese 
so  thoroughly  that  he  wrote  reports  in  that  language; 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  Manchu  dialects;  and 
studied  the  philosophy  of  Confucius  and  Mencius  so 
thoroughly  that  he  was  competent  to  lecture  the 
Chinese.  He  amazed  the  Petrograd  Foreign  Office 
by  the  penetration  of  his  secret  reports.  An  official 
who  read  these  reports  assured  me  that  when  pub- 
lished they  will  cast  a  brighter  light  upon  the  Chinese 
social  system  and  Chinese  psychology  than  the  wri- 
tings of  men  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  China. 

On  the  outbreak  of  the  world- war,  Korniloff  com- 
manded the  famous  48th  division,  formerly  called 
after  the  great  General  Suvoroff,  and  now  called 
"Korniloff's."  In  the  disaster  of  Galicia  in  the  spring 
of  1915,  he  repeated  the  feat  which  he  had  performed 
against  Japan  ten  years  before.  He  had  fought  with 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  185 

success  in  the  bloody  Dukla  Pass;  but  was  stopped  in 
his  raid  into  the  plains  of  Hungary  by  lack  of  shells; 
and  when  Mackensen  made  his  tremendous  sweep, 
breaking  thiough  the  Russian  front  on  the  Dunajec 
and  threatening  the  rears  of  all  the  Russian  armies 
operating  in  the  Carpathians,  it  was  KornilofFs  divi- 
sion which  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  attack,  and 
to  hold  back  the  enemy  long  enough  for  other  divi- 
sions to  extricate  themselves.  Almost  without  am- 
munition, and  in  a  position  which  he  could  not 
entrench  properly  owing  to  the  stones  in  the  ground, 
he  was  attacked  by  Mackensen's  heavy  guns;  and  had 
to  retreat.  He  stayed  with  the  imperiled  rearguard, 
land  was  wounded  in  the  arm;  but  despite  this  he 
led  the  charges  of  his  men  as  he  had  done  at  Mukden. 
After  seven  days  of  desperate  fighting,  part  of  his 
division  was  cut  off  and  captured;  but  by  fighting  to 
the  last  and  sacrificing  this  unit,  he  saved  the 
remainder.  Wounded  and  exhausted,  he  fell  into 
Austrian  hands.  With  him  was  taken  his  golden 
sword,  but  the  enemy  commander,  struck  with  his 
courage  and  magnaminity,  returned  it  with  compli- 
ments. He  spent  a  year  in  an  Austrian  prison-camp 
in  Bohemia.  After  that  year  he  performed  the  most 
remarkable  achievement  of  his  adventurous  life.  With 
the  assistance  of  a  Czech  soldier,  Mrnak  by  name, 
who  sympathized  with  the  Russian  cause,  he  escaped. 
In  company  of  the  Czech,  he  walked  five  hundred 
miles,  with  no  assistance  except  a  map  and  a  compass. 
The  pair  had  food  for  only  five  days ;  after  that  they 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

lived  upon  berries.  A  few  days'  march  from  safety, 
they  were  surprised  by  Austrians,  and  the  Czech, 
standing  valiantly  before  the  fugitive  general,  was 
wounded,  and  taken  prisoner.  He  was  court-martialed 
as  a  traitor  and  executed.  In  this  incident  KornilofT 
again  displayed  his  generous  and  chivalrous  character. 
A  poor  man  himself,  he  arranged  through  a  neutral 
country  for  the  payment  of  a  life-pension  to  the 
soldier's  family;  and  he  entered  Mrnak's  name  upon 
the  roll  of  a  Russian  regiment;  and  ordered  that  at 
every  roll-call  when  the  names  were  called  out,  the 
sergeant  should  call  back,  "Shot  by  Hungarian  court- 
martial  in  Pressburg  for  saving  the  life  of  General 
KornilofT." 

Korniloff's  revolutionary  leanings  were  well-known 
to  Liberals;  and  when  the  Revolution  broke  out,  he 
was  summoned  to  Petrograd  as  the  soldier  who  could 
best  be  trusted  to  defend  the  Revolution  at  its  heart. 
He  was  appointed  Commander  of  the  Petrograd 
Military  District.  There  from  the  first  he  met  in- 
superable difficulties.  The  local  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Deputies,  which  aspired  to  hold 
the  real  power  behind  the  backs  of  the  Provisional 
Government,  made  constant  trouble  against  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  soldiers,  resulting  in  street  demon- 
strations and  violence.  In  May  when  anarchy  was 
increasing  and  conditions  at  Petrograd  seemed  men- 
acing, I  met  Korniloff  at  the  house  of  a  Petrograd 
writer.  He  was  much  excited.  He  reminded  me  of 
the  hopes  which  all  Russians  had  felt  after  the 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  187 

triumph  of  the  Revolution ;  and  he  said  bitterly,  'The 
Army  is  only  an  image  of  the  rest  of  Russia.  We 
never  had  discipline;  for  a  time  the  Army  had  a  little; 
but  now  it  has  no  more  than  the  rest  of  the  people. 
May  God  help  us!"  On  a  conservative  guest's  re- 
marking, "Well,  general,  you  will  have  to  shoot." 
Korniloff  rose  and  said  with  emphasis:  "If  I  have 
to  shoot,  I  prefer  to  shoot  Russia's  enemies  rather 
than  her  own  sons."  A  few  days  later  he  resigned, 
took  an  army  command  on  the  Southwestern  Front, 
won  the  only  victory  of  the  Revolution;  and  when 
Brusiloff  was  dismissed  by  Kerensky  early  in  August 
became  Commander-in-Chief. 

From  the  day  of  his  appointment,  Korniloff  was 
in  constant  friction  with  Kerensky  owing  to  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Cabinet  to  sanction  measures  necessary  for 
the  restoration  of  Army  discipline.  The  friction  had 
gone  so  far  that  Kerensky,  if  rumor  was  true,  begged 
Korniloff  not  to  attend  the  Moscow  Congress.  But 
on  the  second  day  of  the  Congress  Korniloff  arrived; 
and  turned  what  was  already  a  struggle  between 
Socialists  and  bourgeoisie  into  a  personal  duel  be- 
tween Kerensky  and  Korniloff.  The  foes  of  Keren- 
sky,  regarding  Korniloff  as  their  hero,  did  everything 
possible  to  make  this  opposition  plain.  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief was  to  be  the  man  of  blood  and 
iron  who  would  cast  down  the  rhetorician  Premier, 
the  politician  who  talked  of  blood  and  iron.  On  the 
morning  of  Korniloff's  arrival  the  opposition  cir- 
culated illustrated  pamphlets  describing  his  remark- 


188       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

able  rise,  his  heroism  and  his  victories,  and  acclaiming 
him  as  the  country's  destined  savior.  At  the  railroad 
station  was  all  of  Russia  that  was  moderate  and 
patriotic — the  flower  of  the  Cossacks,  the  Junkers, 
representatives  of  the  volunteer  "striking  battalions," 
and  boys  and  girls  who  had  fought  in  the  War.  There 
were  also  representatives  of  the  Industrial  Group ;  the 
Mayor  of  Moscow,  Rudneff,  and  the  veteran  Duma 
member  Roditcheff,  a  champion  of  Constitutionalism 
under  the  Autocracy,  and  a  fierce  advocate  of  the 
continuation  of  the  War.  The  Cossacks,  Junkers,  and 
boy  and  girl  volunteers  carried  bouquets  of  flowers; 
and  as  Korniloff,  followed  by  his  bodyguard  of 
gigantic  Tekke  Turcomans,  marched  down  the  line, 
the  flowers  were  thrown  at  his  feet.  As  the  Mayor 
addressed  him,  calling  him  Russia's  hero,  savior  and 
"our  heart's  desire,"  some  of  the  Cossacks  shed  tears. 
Later,  Korniloff  stood  in  front  of  Roditcheff,  and 
heard  the  floweriest  speech  ever  made.  He  listened 
modestly  while  he  was  told  that  he  only  could  save 
Russia  from  foreign  and  domestic  foes ;  and  then  em- 
braced the  orator,  and  left.  No  word  was  said  of 
revolt  against  the  Petrograd  Government,  but  there 
were  few  who  did  not  know  that  that  was  in  the  air; 
and  Korniloff  was  expected  to  lay  a  foundation  for 
this  by  a  sharp  speech  of  indictment  against  the 
Kerensky  and  Soviet  regime.  This  he  did  next  day, 
though  the  indictment  was  indirect.  He  declared  that 
if  the  anarchy  in  the  Army  was  not  stopped,  Riga 
would  fall,  and  then  the  road  to  Petrograd  would 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  189 

be  open.  He  gave  an  appalling  picture  of  the  disorder 
and  disorganization  at  the  front;  told  of  the  murders 
of  officers ;  and  described  the  soldiers  as  "wild  beasts," 
men  who  "had  lost  all  the  likeness  of  warriors."  He 
further  condemned  the  disorder  at  the  rear,  as  result 
of  which  shell  production  had  declined  sixty  per  cent, 
and  aeroplane  production  eighty  per  cent.  He  was 
not,  he  declared,  against  the  Army  Committees;  but 
these  must  henceforth  confine  their  interference  to 
the  economic  and  internal  life  of  regiments,  and  must 
not  meddle  with  military  operations.  Army  officers 
must  be  appointed,  not  elected;  their  prestige  must 
be  restored;  and  their  pay  improved;  and  they  must 
have  power  to  compel  soldiers  to  preserve  order  and 
cleanliness.  These  demands  were  less  drastic  than  was 
expected;  for  it  was  known  that  Korniloff  had 
privately  demanded  the  militarization  of  the  railroads 
and  the  restoration  of  the  death  penalty  for  serious 
offenses  at  the  rear.  But  the  Left  was  convinced 
already  that  Korniloff  aimed  at  a  counter-revolution. 
Representatives  of  the  Army  Committees  denounced 
him  to  me  as  a  bloodthirsty  ogre;  and  declared  that 
the  popularity  which  he  had  once  enjoyed  among 
soldiers  was  shattered  as  result  of  "his  infamous 
attempt  to  make  soldiers  fight  when  they  do  not  want 
to  fight."  When  he  entered  the  theater,  nearly  all  the 
audience  rose;  but  about  forty  private  soldiers,  repre- 
sentatives of  Army  Committees,  kept  their  seats 
demonstratively ;  and  when  reproved  with  the  cry  "Get 
up,  scoundrels!"  hissed  loudly. 


190       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Moderate  men  were  incensed  that  Kerensky,  wh< 
as  Minister  of  War  wore  a  soldier's  uniform,  took 
no  action  against  this.  In  fact,  the  anti-Korniloff 
party  and  the  pro-Kerensky  party  were  one.  For 
Kerensky  the  Congress  was  a  success.  The  remark- 
able histrionic  personality  which  I  have  already 
described  enabled  him  to  dominate  the  audience,  even 
when  he  was  entirely  in  the  wrong.  He  showed  ex- 
treme rudeness  to  opposition  speakers,  openly  favored 
the  disorder  of  the  Left  and  shouted  imperative  com- 
mands at  persons  of  the  other  camp  who,  he  imagined, 
were  breaking  the  rules.  A  remarkable  collision  took 
place  with  the  Speaker  of  the  Duma,  Rodzianko.  By 
his  public  and  private  record,  and  even  by  his  exterior 
—he  is  a  very  tall,  stout  and  imposing  man — Rod- 
zianko, commanded  the  respect  of  all.  Yet  Kerensky 
flouted  and  insulted  him.  He  cut  him  short  in  the 
middle  of  a  sentence,  and  on  Rodzianko's  turning  to 
him  very  politely  and  saying,  "I  hope  the  President 

of    the    Council    of    Ministers    will    allow    me " 

Kerensky  interrupted  him  still  more  rudely,  and  said 
"Your  time  is  up."  With  great  dignity  Rodzianko 
came  down  the  steps  of  the  tribune  and  went  into 
his  box.  The  audience  protested;  and  Kerensky,  see- 
ing that  he  had  blundered,  turned  to  Rodzianko's  box: 
"I  suppose  I  must  be  unfair  to  other  speakers;  but 
if  you  like  you  may  continue  your  speech.  An  excep- 
tion may  be  made  for  the  Speaker  of  the  Duma  of 
the  Empire."  Rodzianko  rose  in  his  box  and  said 
very  resolutely:  "The  Speaker  of  the  Duma  of  the 


KORNILOFF  AT  MOSCOW  191 

Empire  is  the  last  man  who  would  think  of  letting 
the  law  be  violated  in  his  favor."  Kerensky  got  by 
far  the  worst  of  this  encounter,  but  he  continued  to 
dominate  the  audience;  and  always  had  the  greatest 
share  of  the  applause,  thus,  according  to  the  strange 
method  of  the  State  Congress,  getting  a  sort  of  vote 
of  confidence. 

At  the  time  of  the  Congress  Kerensky 's  vanity  had 
risen  to  incredible  heights.  Early  in  his  speech  he 
provoked  mirth  by  making  confessions  about  the  state 
of  his  soul,  saying  "I  have  been  accused  of  putting 
too  much  faith  in  humanity;  henceforth  let  no  man 
indict  Alexander  Kerensky  for  believing  too  easily  in 
the  goodness  of  his  fellow-men."  This  naive  con- 
fession was  delivered  with  great  gravity;  and  it 
provoked  loud  laughter  and  the  remark  "Impudent 
fellow !"  Kerensky  appeared  in  half  royal  state.  As 
Korniloff  had  to  arrive  late  from  the  front,  Kerensky 
sooner  than  show  himself  before  the  whole  audience 
was  in  place,  thereby  violating  royal  etiquette,  demon- 
stratively kept  the  Congress  waiting  until  Korniloff 
had  taken  his  seat,  and  then  walked  in  and  joined 
his  fellow  ministers.  There  he  sat  on  an  armchair 
drawn  back  from  and  differing  from  theirs;  and  be- 
hind the  armchair  were  stationed  two  very  handsome 
young  officers  in  the  pose  required  by  monarchs  from 
their  aides-de-camp.  The  public  called  these  officer* 
"Kerensky 's  lackeys."  Kerensky's  speeches  were  so 
full  of  pretense  that  his  supposed  supporter  Tseretelli 
had  to  explain  solemnly  from  the  tribune  that  the 


192       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

audience  was  mistaken  if  it  assumed  that  the  Premier 
claimed  to  govern  Russia  by  divine  right  "Kerensky," 
said  Tseretelli,  "thoroughly  understands  that  he  is 
only  a  mandatory  of  the  people."  This  defense,  by 
emphasizing  poses  and  pretensions  which  perhaps  not 
all  had  observed,  made  things  worse;  and  cynics  said 
that  Tseretelli,  who  is  a  much  cleverer  man  than  Keren- 
sky,  was  mocking  at  his  chief.  Apparently,  the  scandal 
became  too  great,  for  on  the  last  day  of  the  Congress 
the  "lackeys"  were  withdrawn. 

While  crystallizing  the  antagonism  between  the 
bourgeois  and  Socialist  groups,  and  making  clear  that 
Korniloff  and  Kerensky  were  leaders  who  were  bound 
to  come  to  blows,  the  Congress  gave  no  hint  of  the 
intrigues  concealed  underneath  this  apparently  clear- 
cut  situation.  The  antagonism  was  not  irreconcilable. 
Korniloff  and  Kerensky,  disliking  and  despising  one 
another  as  they  did,  at  this  stage  believed  that  neither 
could  safely  hold  power  without  the  collaboration  of 
the  other;  and  negotiations  were  already  under  way 
for  a  common  policy  with  the  aim  of  uniting  the 
Army,  the  bourgeoisie  and  the  moderate  Socialists 
against  the  general  enemy,  the  Bolsheviks.  These 
underground  negotiations  were  revealed  after  they 
broke  down,  and  Korniloff  as  result  of  the  break- 
down had  openly  rebelled  against  Kerensky  in  the 
middle  of  September. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    REVIVAL    OF    ORTHODOXY 

SIMULTANEOUSLY  with  the  Moscow  Congress, 
which  condensed  many  scattered  patriotic  forces  in 
opposition  to  the  Soviets,  the  Ecumencial  Congress  of 
the  Orthodox  Church  took  place. 

The  meeting  of  both  congresses  in  the  same  week 
was  a  significant  accident.  Twice  before  when  Russia 
was  dismembered  by  foreign  foes  and  disunited  at 
home,  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  was  the  citadel  of 
independence.  At  the  time  of  the  Tartar  invasion, 
the  country  was  cut  up  into  petty,  individually  help- 
less statelets,  which  would  probably  never  have 
coalesced  into  permanent  union  after  the  collapse  of 
the  invaders  had  not  religion  supplied  a  common  bond. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  when  a  Polish  army 
marched  to  Moscow,  the  successful  defense  of  the 
Trinity  Monastery  set  an  example  of  patriotic  valor 
to  the  disspirited  people.  History  repeats  itself.  To- 
day, Tikhon,  the  new  Patriarch,  leads  in  summoning 
the  nation  to  renewed  resistance  to  the  foreign  enemy. 
The  foundations  of  this  mixed  religious  and  national- 
istic revival  were  laid  when  the  secular  State  Congress 

193 


194       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

sitting  almost  next  door  expressed  nothing  but 
pessimism.  The  revival  progressed  steadily  in  measure 
with  the  country's  political  and  social  degeneration; 
and  it  is  to-day  receiving  powerful  impulses  from 
the  aggressive  secularism,  verging  on  anti-religious 
persecution,  of  the  government  of  People's  Commis- 
saries. Immersed  though  she  is  in  a  struggle  for 
bread  and  shoes,  Russia  is  yet  a  fertile  field  for  such 
a  revival.  Spiritually  and  intellectually,  the  country 
is  not  dead.  It  is  as  full  of  thinkers,  idealists, 
theorists  of  national  and  human  salvation  as  at  any 
time  under  the  Autocracy.  This  was  expressed  in- 
directly after  the  Bolshevik  coup  by  Maxim  Gorky 
when  he  declared  that  at  least  one  product  of  the 
Revolution  remained — the  open-air  meetings,  forbid- 
den under  the  old  regime,  of  debaters,  proselytizers, 
and  enthusiasts,  "who  talk  on  abstract  themes  and 
propound  first  principles  as  if  they  rightly  compre- 
hended that  greater  issues  are  involved  than  the  city's 
breadlessness  for  the  last  three  days,  that  more  im- 
portant events  are  impending  than  the  next  raid  on 
'counter-revolutionaries.' '  This  mental  ferment  con- 
tinues to  be  expressed  in  pre-revolutionary  forms. 
There  are  still  student  "circles"  which  meet  secretly 
for  fear  of  repression;  there  are  schoolteachers  who, 
with  their  schools  closed  for  lack  of  fuel,  work  at 
the  political  education  of  their  pupils'  parents;  and 
there  are  peasant  evangelism  and  Messianism  without 
end,  with  aims  as  sublime  as  "invoking  universal 
felicity  by  prayer"  and  as  comic  as  going  without 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY        195 

clothes  as  do  the  neo-monarchists  of  West  Siberia. 
No  class  is  without  its  faith  or  consolation.  When  a 
Soviet  decree  cut  off  the  incomes  of  the  well-to-do, 
a  number  of  noble  ladies  of  Moscow  declared  publicly 
their  joy  at  being  driven  from  their  homes,  because 
in  the  old  days  they  had  lacked  the  courage  to  "go 
down  to  the  people"  and  to  "simplify"  themselves; 
and  now  that  they  were  driven  "down  to  the  people" 
they  first  found  real  peace. 

Under  the  Autocracy  such  movements  were  anti- 
Nationalistic  and  either  anti-religious  or  sectarian, 
because  Nationalism  and  State  Orthodoxy  spelt  reac- 
tion. This  opposition  has  disappeared.  The  Church 
is  in  great  measure  dominated  by  highly  progressive 
men;  and  that  rationalism  does  not  always  go  with 
progress,  or  at  least  with  liberty,  the  repressions  of 
the  Soviets  are  sufficient  proof.  Whether  Russians 
are  naturally  more  religious  than  other  Europeans 
may  be  doubted.  A  dispute  on  the  subject  raged 
between  two  of  the  most  famous  native  writers,  but 
it  is  certain  th  t  as  soon  as  the  Church  and  National- 
ism were  cleansed  from  Autocratism,  anti-Semitism 
and  other  abuses,  a  reaction  towards  both  set  in.  The 
Bishop  of  Ufa,  Andrew,  foretold  why:  "The  people 
might  be  indifferent.  But  even  if  they  were  convinced 
that  the  Church  was  a  dead  and  formalist  thing,  they 
would  reason  from  the  anti-Church  zeal  of  some  per- 
sons that  it  was  a  live  and  dangerous  thing."  After 
the  Bolshevik  revolt  this  proved  true.  Peasants  who 
had  never  entered  their  churches  while  these  stood 


196       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

unharmed,  rioted  and  retaliated  as  soon  as  they  were 
burnt  down  by  Bolshevik  soldiers.  And  that  this  sen- 
timent was  at  heart  national  as  well  as  religious  was 
proved  by  the  denunciation  of  the  iconoclasts  as  "non- 
Russian."  By  tradition  Orthodoxy  was  so  closely 
bound  up  with  Russian  patriotism  that  an  attack  upon 
one  was  inevitably  taken  as  an  attack  upon  the  other. 
Before  the  Revolution  the  Russian  Church  was  dis- 
credited in  the  public  eye  not  by  its  association  with 
Nationalism  but  by  its  association  with  State  oppres- 
sion. Since  Peter  the  Great,  who  brought  the  Church 
finally  under  the  power  of  the  State,  Orthodoxy  had 
been  merely  a  political  instrument  of  the  bureaucracy. 
Its  value  as  an  instrument  of  reactionary  policy 
depended  in  great  measure  upon  its  fortification 
against  internal  reform.  The  Holy  Synod  persecuted 
priests  who  aimed  at  a  spiritual  revival  quite  as 
severely  as  it  persecuted  those  with  liberal  tenets  in 
politics.  Father  Gregory  Petroff,  the  only  progres- 
sive cleric  in  the  first  Duma,  was  unfrocked.  The 
State-controlled  monasteries  were  centers  of  fanati- 
cism, tempered  by  debauchery  which  the  State  did 
nothing  to  eradicate.  The  country  was  full  of  monks 
and  priests  like  Iliodore  and  the  late  Father  John  of 
Kronstadt,  sometimes  rogues,  sometimes  innocent 
obscurantists,  who  upheld  reaction,  incited  to  persecu- 
tion of  Jews  and  progressives,  and  kept  the  peasants 
in  wholesome  subjection.  Thus,  though  the  Church 
as  a  whole  was  passively  rather  than  aggressively 
retrograde,  it  earned  intense  dislike  from  Liberals  and 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY        197 

Socialists;  and  even  in  the  villages  it  enjoyed  little 
respect.' 

All  this  changed  with  the  Revolution.  The  priests 
and  monasteries  shared,  or  professed  to  share,  the 
general  liberationist  enthusiasm.  With  the  approval 
of  the  Synod,  the  Church's  governing  body,  the  clergy 
ceased  to  pray  for  the  Imperial  Family,  and  prayed 
instead  for  the  Provisional  Government.  Revolu- 
tionary demonstrations  went  to  extremes.  At  the  All- 
night  Easter  service  of  1917,  the  ikons  and  chandeliers 
of  the  Petrograd  churches  were  decorated  with 
Socialist  red  bows.  The  monasteries  were  "liberal- 
ized." In  May,  we  heard  of  their  issuing  revolu- 
tionary proclamations,  and  eradicating  all  traces  of 
their  past  reactionary  activities.  Superiors  ordered 
reactionary  and  pogrom  literature  to  be  burned  in 
bonfires  in  the  courtyards.  The  Monastery  of  the 
Trinity,  mentioned  above,  collected  over  three  tons 
of  autocratist  literature,  some  of  it  openly  calling  for 
Jewish  massacres,  and  burned  it,  while  the  monks  in 
ecstasy  danced  around  the  flames.  The  Superior  of 
the  Monastery  of  the  Passion,  also  at  Moscow,  issued 
a  decree  declaring  that  "this  accursed  literature  im- 
posed on  us  by  the  infamous  Nicholas  II  must  not 
be  used  even  for  wrapping  up  parcels."  Greatest  was 
the  cleaning  out  at  the  Kieff  Pestchera  Monastery, 
the  most  famous  in  Russia,  under  which  in  catacombs 
lie  the  bones  of  hundreds  of  saints.  This  monastery 
was  a  notorious  center  of  Reaction.  From  it  was 
inspired  and  directed  the  prosecution  of  the  Jew  Beilis 


198       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

for  ritual  murder  of  a  boy.  After  the  Revolution  a 
fortnight  was  spent  in  cleansing  the  monastery  of  its 
past  politics.  The  women's  convents  had  also  to  be 
cleaned  out.  Local  Councils  of  Deputies  threatened 
the  nuns  that  if  they  did  not  destroy  all  reactionary 
pamphlets  and  expel  such  reactionary  nuns  as  did  not 
recant,  their  nunneries  would  be  invaded  by  the 
soldiers,  "who  would  do  what  they  liked."  The  ter- 
rified women  obeyed.  So,  at  least  outwardly,  the 
convents  as  well  as  the  monasteries  were  revolution- 
ized. But  the  Socialists  made  sharp  attacks  against 
the  idleness  and  parasitism  of  the  monks  and  nuns, 
and  forced  the  Ministry  of  War  to  issue  a  decree 
declaring  that  all  monks  should  do  military  service, 
not  as  soldiers  but  in  the  army  medical  departments. 
This,  like  other  revolutionary  reforms,  was  never 
carried  out. 

A  great  spontaneous  reform  movement  began  at 
the  same  time.  On  the  contentious  issue  of  the  War, 
most  of  the  higher  clerics  took  up  a  patriotic  attitude, 
and  issued  appeals  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front  to 
fight  to  the  last.  On  internal  Church  questions  dif- 
ferences arose.  The  more  advanced  priests  demanded 
the  equalizing  of  the  Black  and  White  Clergy.  The 
White  Clergy  is  secular,  the  Black  monastic.  The 
difference  between  their  positions  is  great.  The  White 
pope  remains  as  a  rule  an  ill-paid  parish  priest  all 
his  life.  The  only  chance  of  escape  is  if  his  wife 
dies,  this  allowing  him  to  enter  a  monastery,  become 
a  member  of  the  Black  Clergy,  and  attain  high  rank. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY        109 

The  bishops,  priests  and  spiritual  members  of  the 
Synod  were  entirely  recruited  from  the  Black  Clergy. 
The  reformers  held  that  the  White  Clergy,  while  still 
marrying  and  having  families,  should  be  promoted 
equally  with  the  Black  to  the  highest  Church  dignities. 

The  other  burning  question  was  the  Patriarchate. 
The  Patriarchate  was  abolished  by  Peter  the  Great 
for  political  reasons,  he  making  himself  real  head  of 
the  Church.  Instead  of  being  ruled  by  a  Patriarch 
who  was  himself  a  priest,  the  Church  has  since  been 
governed  by  the  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod,  a 
layman  who  is  practically  Minister  for  the  Church. 
The  restoration  of  the  old  system  has  always  been 
a  dream  of  reformers,  who  considered  that  a 
Patriarch  independent  of  the  State  would  rule  the 
Church  fearlessly  and  independently.  After  the 
Revolution  a  more  advanced  school  sprang  up,  which 
demanded  the  independence  of  the  Church  without 
the  restoration  of  the  Patriarchate.  These  reformers 
proclaimed  that  while  liberating  the  Church  from  the 
State,  the  Patriarch  would  centralize  power  in  his 
own  hands;  therefore  the  real  progressive  policy  was 
to  have  no  Patriarch  at  all,  but  to  allow  the  Church 
the  greatest  possible  local  freedom. 

The  Church  was  to  decide  these  questions  itself, 
and  to  submit  its  decisions  to  the  Constituent  Assem- 
bly, which  would  finally  regulate  Church  and  State 
relations.  In  the  meantime  reform  went  on  rapidly 
upon  democratic  lines.  These  reforms  were  carried 
out  by  the  very  Synod  which  had  formerly  opposed 


200       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

all  reforms.  The  Revolution's  new  Procurator  of  the 
Holy  Synod  was  Vladimir  Lvoff.  a  member  of  the 
Duma  who  had  for  twelve  years  persistently  de- 
manded Church  reform.  Lvoff,  though  a  Progres- 
sive, is  by  temperament  a  very  autocratic  and  resolute 
man;  and  in  a  few  weeks  he  pushed  through  great 
reforms.  The  chief  was  the  choice  of  all  church 
dignitaries  by  election,  in  which  laymen  and  clerics, 
men  and  women,  participated.  New  Metropolitans 
were  elected  for  Petrograd  and  Moscow;  in  Moscow 
was  held  a  Congress  of  Clergy  and  Laymen  to  settle 
questions  of  common  interest;  and  preparations  were 
made  for  holding  a  great  Ecumenical  Congress  of 
the  Greek  Orthdox  Church. 

Remarkable  church  reformers  began  to  come  to 
the  front.  Most  noted  was  Andrew,  Bishop  of  Ufa. 
Andrew's  life  reads  like  a  romance  of  regeneration 
out  of  the  works  of  Tolstoy.  He  was  born  Prince 
Uchtomsky,  a  member  of  a  historic  and  wealthy 
family,  and  a  brother  of  the  Prince  Hesper  Uchtom- 
sky, who  accompanied  Nicholas  II,  when  Tsarevitch, 
around  the  world,  wrote  a  book  describing  the 
journey,  founded  the  Russo-Chinese  bank,  and  for 
years  edited  the  Petrograd  Viedmosti.  As  guards 
officer,  Andrew  led  a  life  of  worldly  dissipation;  but 
while  still  a  young  man  he  repented,  surrendered  his 
rank,  title  and  wealth  and  entered  a  monastery  as  a 
plain  monk.  By  piety,  learning  and  zeal  he  rose  to 
be  bishop.  An  extreme  ascetic,  he  wore  a  horse-hair 
shirt,  slept  on  the  floor,  for  years  ate  only  rye  bread 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY        201 

and  in  mid-winter  lived  in  a  dugout  cell  in  a  remote 
forest.  He  preached  with  fervid  zeal  to  the  Moham- 
medan Tartars,  and  to  the  heathen  Tcheremeses  and 
Tchuvashes  in  East  Russia.  His  greatest  fame  was 
gained  by  his  bold  stand  against  Rasputin.  When 
Rasputin  was  adopted  by  the  State  church,  Andrew 
protested  and  denounced  him  as  an  impostor  and 
rascal.  The  Court  planned  to  seize  Andrew  and  in- 
tern him  in  a  monastery-prison  for  life.  The  Revolu- 
tion saved  him.  He  now  appeared  as  a  champion 
of  Church  reforms  and  of  moral  regeneration  among 
the  clergy  and  monks;  and  he  denounced  all  the  dis- 
integrating influences  which  were  preventing  Russia 
from  carrying  on  the  War. 

Late  in  July  were  issued  proclamations  by  the 
Synod  and  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  including 
Andrew,  announcing  a  great  Ecumenical  Congress. 
The  Congress  convocation  was  heralded  in  a  striking 
proclamation,  composed  almost  entirely  of  quotations 
from  Holy  Writ.  Citizens  were  adjured  to  pray  for 
its  success  as  the  one  element  of  hope  in  their  day 
of  foreign  defeat  and  domestic  ruin.  On  the  Council 
were  to  sit  representatives  of  the  priesthood  and  of 
the  laity,  elected  by  parishioners.  Women  were 
given  the  vote  equally  with  men.  This  was  a  drastic 
reform,  for  the  old  Church  had  almost  regarded 
women  as  unclean.  In  addition  were  to  sit  the  bishops 
and  archbishops,  the  Superiors  of  the  chief  monas- 
teries, representatives  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  mem- 
bers of  the  Duma  and  the  Council  of  the  Empire, 


202       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

and  representatives  of  the  eastern  autonomous 
Churches.  These  proclamations  had  a  great  effect 
upon  the  religious  part  of  the  people  who,  beginning 
to  despair  of  the  salvation  of  the  country  by  political 
means,  saw  a  last  hope  in  the  intervention  of 
Providence. 

On  the  28th  of  August,  the  Festival  of  the  Assump- 
tion, I  witnessed  the  opening  of  the  Congress.  The 
bells  of  the  city's  sixteen  hundred  churches  had  rung 
continuously  since  dawn.  The  occasion  was  solemn. 
Ever  since  the  Revolution  of  1905,  all  ardent  believers 
in  the  church  had  desired  a  revival  of  the  mediaeval 
practise  of  holding  periodical  congresses.  They  con- 
sidered this  the  only  means  of  rescuing  the  Church 
from  its  former  servility  to  the  State,  of  cleansing 
its  dogmas  and  ritual,  and  inspiring  its  formalism 
with  living  faith  and  zeal  for  social  and  patriotic 
service.  In  this  fervent  spirit  all  Moscow  and  thou- 
sands of  tired  pilgrims  from  elsewhere  congregated 
in  the  center  of  the  city,  chiefly  in  and  around  the 
historic  Kremlin.  All  the  preceding  night  had 
streamed  into  town  shaggy,  bearded  peasants,  bear- 
ing packs  on  their  backs  and  carrying  rude  images  in 
their  hands.  These  peasants,  mixing  with  the  city 
population,  moved  in  dense  masses  towards  the  his- 
toric Red  Square  under  the  Kremlin's  walls,  where 
a  vast  "Procession  of  the  Cross"  was  to  take  place, 
and  an  "All  National  Service  for  the  Salvation  of 
Holy  Russia"  was  to  be  held. 

At  the  Kremlin,  led  by  the  three  newly-elected  arch- 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY        203 

bishops,  who  by  the  Synod's  decree  had  a  day  before 
been  given  the  title  of  Metropolitan,  assembled  sixty 
archbishops  and  bishops  from  all  quarters  of  the 
country,  representatives  of  the  Russo-Greek  Churches, 
and  noted  lay  and  ecclesiastical  reformers.  In 
the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption,  where  still  stands 
the  eagled  throne  on  which  for  hundreds  of  years  the 
Tsars  received  the  crown,  was  held  the  dedicatory 
service.  At  this,  in  cloth  of  gold  vestments  and  with 
miters  gleaming  with  precious  stones,  officiated  the 
leaders  of  the  Church.  The  Cathedral  was  thronged 
with  Bishops  carrying  gemmed  crozicrs,  arch-priests 
in  purple  berettas,  coarsely-gowned,  often  ecstatic, 
monks,  and,  mingled  with  them,  laymen  of  note,  the 
most  prominent  being  the  Prime  Minister  Kerensky, 
and  the  former  Prime  Minister  Prince  Lvoff.  In  an 
impressive  sermon,  the  Exarch  of  Georgia  told  the 
congregation  plainly  that  Russia  was  already  ruined, 
and  that  only  the  Holy  Church  with  the  aid  of  Heaven 
could  rebuild  upon  the  ruins. 

The  demeanor  of  Moscow  showed  that  despite  the 
secular  character  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  open 
atheism  of  the  Left,  the  Church  had  still  a  strong  hold. 
The  long  processions  of  holy  men  as  they  entered  the 
Red  Square  were  followed  by  pious  crowds.  At  the 
head  of  one  procession  came  Bishop  Andrew.  Behind 
were  choirmen  in  brocaded  robes,  acolytes  carrying 
episcopal  staves  hooded  with  cloth  of  gold,  and 
visionaries  and  mystics  from  the  Northern  forests  clad 
in  rags  and  shod  in  birchbark,  who  as  they  reached 


204       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

historic  spots  bowed  and  kissed  the  stones.  Beside 
the  procession  ran  aged,  barefooted  and  ragged 
women,  who  demanded  to  be  allowed  to  share  the 
burden  of  the  heavy  metal  ikons. 

This  inaugural  ceremony  lasted  the  whole  day. 
After  the  service  in  the  Cathedral,  the  three  Metro- 
politans and  sixty  Bishops  proceeded  to  the  Tchudovo 
monastery  where  are  deposited  the  relics  of  Alexis, 
one  of  the  most  revered  saints  of  the  Orthodox 
Church,  and  one  after  another  kissed  the  sacred 
objects.  Many  onlookers  went  into  hysteria;  many 
beat  their  brows  upon  the  earth  and  shed  tears;  and 
late  at  night  an  aged  woman  who  to  see  the  great 
event  had  tramped  five  hundred  miles  from  a  Vol- 
gaside  village  went  into  a  state  of  revivalist  ecstasy 
and  proclaimed  that  an  angel  had  come  to  her  from 
Heaven,  and  told  her  that  the  great  Bishop  Andrew 
with  a  flaming  sword  in  his  hand  would  drive  the 
Bolshevik  defilers  from  the  City  of  Peter  the  Great; 
lead  an  army  of  peasants,  armed  only  with  the  divine 
spirit,  against  the  German  invader;  and  throw  him 
in  ruin  back  to  his  native  land.  Next  morning  the 
five  hundred  members  of  the  Congress  held  one  more 
ceremony  in  the  Temple  of  the  Savior,  built  to  com- 
memorate the  War  of  Liberation  against  Napoleon, 
and  a  day  later  they  began  their  discussions. 

The  Congress  revived  the  Patriarchate,  and  intro- 
duced some  other  useful  reforms ;  but  as  with  all  Revo- 
tionary  initiatives  many  of  its  plans  were  not  carried 
out.  The  Government  of  Lenine  and  Trotsky  com- 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  ORTHODOXY 

pletely  disestablished  and  despoiled  the  Church;  and 
the  Bolshevik  soldiery,  incited  by  agitators,  began  a 
war  against  popular  "superstition,"  often  destroying 
or  profaning  temples,  smashing  venerated  ikons,  and 
posting  sentries  outside  holy  buildings  to  prevent 
access  by  worshipers.  These  measures  are  to-day 
having  the  effect  predicted  by  Bishop  Andrew.  New 
sects  have  arisen  which  denounce  the  Bolsheviks  as 
the  legionaries  of  Antichrist;  the  churches  are 
defended  with  violence;  and  the  new  institutions  of 
civil  marriage  and  birth  registration  are  denounced 
as  German  abominations,  and  ignored.  The  incom- 
petence in  secular  affairs  shown  in  succession  by  the 
skeptical  "Intelligentsiya"  and  the  atheistic  Socialists 
has  enhanced  the  Church's  reputation  in  political 
affairs;  and  the  protests  of  prominent  clerics  against 
the  Empire's  international  humiliation  have  gained 
sympathies  from  a  great  many  citizens  who  in  the 
past  were  neutral  or  hostile  towards  religion. 

The  Orthodox  Church  is  an  integral  part  of  the 
real  Russia.  It  has  its  roots  in  history  and  tradition; 
and  now  that  all  other  historic  institutions  have 
perished  without  any  new  stable  institutions  taking 
their  places,  Orthodoxy  occupies  an  exceptional  and 
favorable  position.  It  is  the  one  link  between  present 
and  past.  Cleansed  as  it  is  already  of  corruption  and 
formalism,  politically  emancipated  and  happily  per- 
secuted, it  may  again  lead  the  people.  The  new 
patriotic  Nationalism  which  is  arising  to  re-unite  all 
of  the  old  Russia  that  speaks  the  same  Great-Russian 


206       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

language  and  professes  the  same  religion,  and  which 
is  destined  also  to  save  these  populations  from  foreign 
exploitation,  will  probably  find  its  strongest  support 
in  the  Orthodox  Church;  and  in  this  the  Revolution, 
which  has  violated  so  many  historic  precedents,  will 
keep  true  to  type. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION 


THE  failure  of  the  Moscow  State  Congress,  the 
reaction  against  the  Government's  weakness  and 
against  the  internationalist  velleities  and  suspected 
treason  of  the  Soviets,  had  their  inevitable  results  in 
the  rebellion  of  Korniloff.  This  was  the  most  sensa- 
tional event  of  the  Revolution  so  far;  and  though  it 
passed  without  bloodshed  and  left  no  visible  mark 
upon  the  governmental  system  of  Kerensky,  its  his- 
torical importance  is  quite  as  great  as  its  picturesque- 
ness,  for  it  more  than  anything  predetermined  the 
triumph  of  Bolshevism. 

On  Saturday,  the  8th  of  September,  began  one 
more  of  the  ever-recurring  ministerial  crises.  On  the 
following  afternoon  I  went  to  the  Winter  Palace  with 
the  intent  to  ask  Kerensky  about  the  new  appoint- 
ments. I  then  first  learned  of  the  revolt.  A  little, 
mild-faced,  black-bearded  man  in  uniform,  in  whom 
I  recognized  the  Cossack  Duma  member  Karauloff, 
was  running  about  in  a  feminine  state  of  hysteria. 
He  had  come  out  of  Kerensky's  room.  "Korniloff 
has  rebelled!"  he  exclaimed.  "He  demands  that 
Kerensky  shall  hand  over  to  him  the  executive  gov- 

207 


208       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

ernment*  and  he  threatens  that  if  he  gets  a  refusal 
he  will  march  his  army  against  Petrograd  and  accom- 
plish a  coup  d'etat."  Kerensky,  added  Karauloff,  had 
refused;  and  now  as  result  three  echelons  of 
KornilofF s  troops  were  being  rushed  by  train  against 
the  defenseless  capital. 

In  KaraulofFs  mind  the  only  remaining  hope  for 
Russia  was  that  when  the  rebel  troops  learned  the 
real  nature  of  their  mission  they  would  refuse  to  fight. 
This  note  dominated  the  Korniloff  history  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  While  the  outside  world  was  waiting 
for  the  first  sanguinary  clash,  the  great  revolt  was 
being  decided  bloodlessly  by  appeals  from  Kerensky's 
emissaries  to  the  Korniloffites.  An  hour  after  my 
arrival,  the  mild  Cossack  Karauloff  was  sent  out  as 
the  first  emissary  to  implore  the  Korniloffite  troops 
not  to  provoke  a  civil  war ;  and  for  the  next  five  days, 
relations  between  the  opposing  forces  were  entirely  of 
this  diplomatic  kind.  Politician  after  politician  went 
from  the  Government  to  the  Korniloffites  to  convince 
them  that  the  Commander-in-Chief's  aim  was  to  ac- 
complish a  reactionary  counter-revolution,  with  the 
aim  of  restoring  the  Tsardom.  Envoy  after  envoy 
came  from  the  Korniloffites  to  Petrograd.  In  the  end, 
Korniloff's  men,  believing  that  they  were  being  used 
as  tools  to  crush  the  Revolution,  refused  to  fight. 
They  arrested  most  of  their  commanders;  and,  with 
the  exception  of  a  handful,  abandoned  Korniloff,  who 
six  days  later,  with  the  Staff  generals  who  were  in 
the  plot,  surrendered  his  sword. 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  209 

Korniloff  had  sent  his  ultimatum  to  Kerensky  on 
the  day  before.  His  ultimatum-bearer  was  the  former 
Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod,  Vladimir  Lvoff,  the 
organizer  of  the  Church  Congress.  After  resigning 
from  the  Cabinet,  Lvoff  identified  himself  with  the 
Constitutional-Democrats,  the  Moscow  Industrial 
Group,  and  those  of  the  Cossacks  and  officers  who 
were  opposed  to  Kerensky.  Lvoff  came  to  Kerensky, 
declaring  that  he  had  something  important  to  com- 
municate; and  announced  bluntly  that  he  had  come 
as  KornilofFs  plenipotentiary  to  demand  the  surrender 
of  all  power  into  the  Commander's  hands.  He  added 
that  this  demand  did  not  emanate  from  Korniloff 
alone.  It  was  supported  by  "a  group  of  political 
workers,"  he  added,  meaning  the  groups  that  had 
shown  their  disapproval  of  Kerensky  at  the  Moscow 
Congress.  Kerensky,  he  suggested,  should  come  to 
KornilofFs  headquarters;  and  he  offered  him  a 
guarantee  against  arrest.  Kerensky  declared  himself 
amazed,  and  said  that  he  refused  to  believe  his  ears. 
He  got  into  telegraphic  communication  with  Korniloff, 
and  asked  if  the  ultimatum  was  true.  He  received 
the  reply  that  it  was  true.  Thereupon,  he  issued  a 
proclamation  deposing  Korniloff  from  the  command, 
denouncing  him  as  a  traitor,  and  summoning  the 
Army  and  the  country  to  oppose  him.  The  defense 
of  Petrograd  was  announced.  But  in  a  military  sense 
Kerensky  was  wholly  unprepared.  When  I  saw  him 
that  night,  pale  and  agitated,  he  admitted  that  if 
Korniloff's  forces  obeyed  the  order  to  march  on  Petro- 


210       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

grad,  no  real  resistance  could  be  offered.  But  he  did 
not  believe  that  Korniloff's  forces  would  obey. 

Kerensky's  first  step  was  to  summon  for  counsel 
the  former  Commander-in-Chief  Alexeyeff,  whom  he 
asked  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Army.  Alexeyeff 
arrived  the  following  night.  Meantime,  the  ministers 
entirely  lost  their  heads.  The  Foreign  Minister, 
Terestchenko,  who  was  most  in  evidence,  assured  me 
repeatedly  that  Korniloff  could  do  nothing;  but  I 
learned  from  another  quarter  that  he  did  not  believe 
his  own  words,  and  had  himself  prepared  for  flight 
to  Moscow.  Kerensky's  chief  assistant,  Nekrasoff, 
was  in  a  panic.  The  effective  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment during  the  next  few  days  was  the  Assistant 
Minister  of  War,  Savinkoff. 

Savinkoff  is  one  of  the  most  striking  personalities, 
and  perhaps  the  ablest  man  produced  by  the  Revolu- 
tion. His  personal  record  is  remarkable.  Now  a  man 
of  middle  age,  he  early  engaged  in  Terrorist  plots. 
He  was  implicated  in  the  assassination  of  several 
officials;  and  he  fled  abroad,  living  for  years  in 
France,  whence  he  directed  several  deadly  bomb  plots 
against  the  Autocracy.  A  typical  Terrorist  of  fiction, 
he  plotted  cold-bloodedly  from  a  distance,  yet  shrank 
from  no  personal  danger  and  was  absolutely  ruthless 
in  his  treatment  of  weak  comrades.  He  has  remark- 
able literary  talent.  Before  the  Revolution,  he  pub- 
lished under  the  pseudonym  "Ropshin"  a  novel  W 'hat 
Never  Happened,  in  which  he  laid  bare  the  whole 
mechanism  and  psychology  of  Terrorism.  The  book 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  211 

had  great  success.  After  the  Revolution,  he  returned 
to  Russia,  where  he  became  the  first  Supreme  Com- 
missary of  the  Army;  and  he  applied  his  strong  will, 
revolutionary  devotion  and  diplomatic  skill  to  stop 
the  disintegration  of  the  national  defenses.  When 
this  attempt  failed,  he  started  an  agitation  to  compel 
the  Provisional  Government  to  restore  capital  punish- 
ment for  soldier  criminals,  and  here  he  succeeded. 
He  was  associated  with  Korniloff  in  urging  the 
Goveinment  to  take  further  disciplinary  measures. 
He  became  Assistant  Minister  of  War.  When  the 
Korniloff  rebellion  broke  out,  he,  though  a  civilian, 
was  appointed  Commander  of  the  Petrograd  Military 
District,  and  he  had  under  him  such  small  forces  as 
the  Government  could  bring  together  to  oppose 
KornilofFs  march. 

I  now  first  made  SavinkofFs  acquaintance.  He  is 
an  extremely  handsome,  dark-haired  man  with  a  pale 
face  and  resolute  chin.  He  denounced  Korniloff  as 
a  traitor  to  the  Revolution.  This  surprised  me,  as 
I  knew  that  the  two  had  been  allies.  During  the 
next  days,  I  met  him  many  times,  and  soon  saw  that 
he  alone  of  the  higher  Government  officials  kept  his 
nerve.  It  was  he  who  really  directed  the  emissaries 
who  broke  down  the  revolt;  and  it  was  he  who  at 
the  same  time  compelled  the  terrified  Bolshevik 
soldiers  of  Petrograd  to  go  to  the  "front,"  and  pre- 
pare for  something  like  a  fight  Savinkoff  was 
thoroughly  distrusted  by  these  soldiers,  who  knew 
him  to  stand  for  merciless  discipline,  and  for  the 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


continuation  of  the  War  ;  and  he  knew  that  they  were 
a  much  worse  peril  to  the  country  than  Korniloff's 
rebel  troops.  On  the  following  Wednesday,  when 
it  was  quite  clear  that  the  Commander-in-Chief's 
rebellion  had  failed,  he  said  to  me  with  a  vicious  look: 
"Now  that  we  have  finished  with  Korniloff,  we  must 
finish  with  the  Bolsheviks."  His  plan  was  to  sur- 
round the  disorderly  garrison  with  a  few  devoted 
troops  and  give  them  the  alternative  of  disbandment 
or  wholesale  destruction.  A  "massacre  of  the  Janis- 
saries," such  as  the  Turkish  Sultan  Mohammed 
carried  through  in  Constantinople  a  hundred  years 
before,  was  his  aim.  He  believed  that  bloodshed  was 
the  only  thing  that  would  save  his  country. 

Hardly  was  the  Korniloff  rebellion  born  before  it 
began  to  die.  Apart  from  the  unwillingness  of 
soldiers  on  either  side  to  fight,  it  was  killed  by  the 
sentiment  which  runs  like  a  red  thread  through  the 
whole  Revolution,  the  dread  of  Counter-Revolution. 
It  was  further  killed  by  the  treason  of  the  civilians 
around  Korniloff.  Many  expected  that  the  Constitu- 
tional-Democrats, the  Moscow  Industrial  Group,  and 
all  those  moderate  men  who  opposed  the  despotism 
of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies,  would  openly 
proclaim  for  Korniloff.  Some  of  them  were  believed 
to  be  already  at  Moghileff,  the  headquarters.  They 
not  only  sympathized  with  the  rebellion  but  more  or 
less  knew  of  it  in  advance.  But  the  "Intelligentsiya" 
acted  as  it  always  acts  in  time  of  crisis.  It  showed 
the  white  feather.  Of  all  the  highly  placed  and  in- 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  213 

fluential  civilians  who  wanted  Korniloff  to  succeed, 
who  had  incited  him  to  revolt,  not  one  had  the  courage 
to  take  his  side  openly.  Terrified  by  dread  of 
massacre  by  the  Bolshevik  soldiers,  most  of  them  kept 
silent;  but  the  Mayor  of  Moscow,  who  had  attended 
the  triumphal  reception  at  Moscow  station,  and  had 
acclaimed  Korniloff  as  the  nation's  savior,  had  the 
baseness  to  issue  a  proclamation  denouncing  him  as 
a  traitor.  As  result  Korniloff,  who  would  have  been 
enormously  strengthened  had  he  been  backed  by  a 
declaration  from  the  Duma  majority,  from  ex- 
Ministers  or  from  any  other  well-known  civilians, 
was  left  in  the  position  of  a  mere  military  adventurer 
playing  for  his  own  hand.  I  heard  later  that 
Korniloff,  to  whose  chivalrous  mind  treachery  was 
inconceivable,  bitterly  condemned  his  unfaithful  sup- 
porters. Their  cowardice  was  one  nail  in  the  coffin 
of  the  revolt. 

The  other  nail  was  the  conduct  of  the  soldiers, 
sailors  and  working  men,  all  terrified  by  the  cry 
"Counter-Revolution!"  The  Bolshevik  agitators,  the 
authors  of  the  blood-bath  in  Petrograd  in  mid- July, 
who  lay  awaiting  trial  in  the  Peter  and  Paul  Fortress, 
declared  for  the  Kerensky  Government  and  some  of 
them  got  their  release  in  order  to  form  a  force  "to 
save  the  Revolution."  The  Army  at  the  front  refused 
to  support  Korniloff.  From  garrisons  in  the  rear 
towns,  from  the  warships  at  Helsingfors,  Reval  and 
Kronstadt,  came  expressions  of  determination  to 
support  the  Government.  All  day  and  all  night  into 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


the  Ministry  of  War  poured  telegrams  from  units 
of  soldiers,  sailors  and  working  men,  denouncing 
Korniloff  as  the  foe  of  the  Revolution,  and  begging 
the  Government  to  stand  firm.  And  while  KornilofFs 
advanced  guard  was  still  moving  on  Petrograd,  and 
in  three  days  had  reached  to  within  thirty  miles,  the 
revolt  broke  down.  The  Army  Committees  at  the 
front  to  a  man  opposed  the  revolt;  and  they  began 
to  arrest  their  generals.  General  Denikin,  perhaps  the 
best  strategist  in  the  Army,  and  General  Erdeli  were 
the  first  arrested.  At  Moghileff,  Korniloff,  his  Chief 
of  Staff  Lukomsky,  alleged  to  be  the  real  initiator 
of  the  rebellion,  and  the  other  high  staff  officers  were 
not  arrested,  but  they  were  surrounded  by  foes.  They 
escaped  arrest  because  faithful  to  them  were  some 
of  the  so-called  "striking  battalions,"  with  KornilofFs 
own  body-guard  of  ferocious  Tekke  Turcomans,  who 
threatened,  numbering  as  they  did  only  twenty,  to 
massacre  the  whole  town  if  any  man  dared  to  lay 
a  hand  upon  their  chief.  Korniloff  had  used  these 
desperate  fellows  at  the  start  of  the  revolt.  When 
the  Staff  printers,  Bolsheviks  to  a  man,  refused  to 
set  up  the  proclamation  in  which  the  revolt  was  justi- 
fied, he  sent  to  the  typesetting  room  ten  Tekke  Tur- 
comans, all  men  over  six  feet  high,  with  enormous 
Mongolian  skulls,  oblique  eyes,  yellow  skins,  and 
particularly  ferocious  expressions,  and  these,  with 
their  long  curved  sabers  drawn,  stood  over  the  com- 
positors while  the  proclamation  was  meekly  set  up. 
But  the  compositors  were  cleverer  than  the  Turco- 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION 

mans.  They  printed  KornilofTs  proclamations;  but 
they  printed  secretly  at  the  same  time  Kerensky's 
proclamation  denouncing  the  revolt,  and  the  two 
proclamations  were  loaded  on  railroad  cars,  and  dis- 
tributed at  the  same  time. 

The  Cabinet  had  so  little  faith  in  its  ability  to  stop 
Korniloff  that  its  chief  military  measures  were  taken 
in  order  to  save  the  Ministers'  own  lives.  In  the 
cellars  underneath  the  Winter  Palace  were  kept  two 
hundred  sailors  of  a  Baltic  fleet  corps;  there  were 
armored  motor  cars  in  the  yard;  and  men  of  the 
Preobrazhensky  and  Litovsky  regiments  ate,  slept  and 
danced  in  the  handsomest  palace  rooms;  dirtied  the 
parquetted  and  mosaic  floors ;  scrawled  upon  the  walls ; 
ripped  and  burned  the  silk-upholstered  furniture; 
broke  the  windows ;  and  threw  their  boots  at  the  glass 
chandeliers. 

Petrograd  kept  quiet.  But  terror  was  caused  by 
the  composition  of  Korniloff's  advance  guard.  This 
advance  guard  was  the  so-called  "Savage  Division," 
consisting  of  four  thousand  Mohammedan  horsemen, 
belonging  to  the  wildest  and  most  barbarous  Caucasus 
tribes.  Kerensky  in  his  proclamation  emphasized  his 
indictment  of  Korniloff  by  pointing  out  that  he  had 
chosen  savage  Asiatics  in  order  to  crush  the  Revolu- 
tion and  the  new  liberties.  In  Petrograd  the  "Savage 
Division"  was  famous  for  its  exploits  in  the  War; 
and  exaggerated  tales  of  its  ferocity  and  license  flew 
through  the  capital;  and  some  citizens  believed  that 


£16       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

if  the  Division  broke  through,  they  would  be  mas- 
sacred in  their  beds. 

When  the  revolt  broke  out,  the  Division  was  at 
Pskoff,  by  rail  five  hours  away.  It  moved  quickly 
northward;  and  before  the  rebellion  collapsed  was 
distant  only  three  hours'  ride  on  horseback.  At  the 
time  when  KornilofFs  Christian  soldiers  were  known 
to  have  abandoned  his  cause,  the  Savage  Division 
remained  a  factor  of  doubt  and  terror.  The  Savages, 
everyone  knew,  had  no  reason  for  interfering  in  a 
Russian  domestic  quarrel;  but  they  were  devoted  to 
their  officers;  and  officers  everywhere  supported 
Korniloff.  It  was  believed  therefore  that  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  Savages  remained  loyal  to  him.  In 
fact,  that  was  not  so;  or  at  least  the  loyalty  did  not 
go  as  far  as  readiness  to  fight. 

That  I  discovered  during  a  visit  to  the  rebellion 
front,  paid  only  after  considerable  difficulty.  The 
Government,  which  even  now  did  not  feel  secure,  did 
not  want  correspondents  to  see  what  was  going  on; 
and  the  Commander  at  Petrograd,  Savinkoff,  kept  me 
waiting  twenty-four  hours  for  a  permit.  On  the  I2th 
of  September,  I  motored  to  Tsarskoe  Selo,  which,  I  was 
told,  the  Division  had  already  entered.  This  was  a 
mistake.  The  Savages  were  still  outside  Pavlovsk, 
a  few  miles  further  from  Petrograd ;  and  the  Govern- 
ment's defenses  ran  through  the  neighboring  village 
of  Popovo.  The  Chief  of  Staff  at  Tsarskoe  Selo 
gave  me  a  further  permit  to  pass  from  the  Govern- 
ment front  to  the  rebel  front.  Tsarskoe  Selc  looked 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  217 

entirely  quiet;  and  the  Staff  already  knew  that  the 
Division  was  not  inclined  for  slaughter;  but  residents 
were  panic-stricken.  I  picked  up  in  my  car  a  youthful 
officer,  on  his  way  to  the  front,  who  talked  frankly 
of  the  anarchy  at  Petrograd;  and  said  that  though 
he  had  to  obey  orders  to  oppose  Korniloff,  he  would 
rejoice  to  see  the  "Savage  Division"  breaking  the 
Government  lines,  raiding  and  "hanging  the  whole 
Kerensky  crew  on  a  rope  across  the  Palace  Square." 

Popovo  is  a  small  village  with  a  wooden  church. 
The  inhabitants  were  peacefully  at  work.  The 
regimental  staff  occupied  a  villa  only  a  hundred  yards 
behind  the  Government's  defense  line.  This  indicated 
an  unusual  sort  of  war.  In  a  closed  room  negotiations 
were  going  on;  and  from  it  came  dull  voices  speaking 
Russian  with  a  foreign  accent.  They  were  the  voices 
of  the  "Savages' "  emissaries.  The  regimental  Staff 
consisted  of  five  unpresentable,  ill-educated,  ap- 
parently Socialist  officers,  who  long  could  not  under- 
stand why  a  newspaper  correspondent  should  want  to 
see  the  enemy;  and  the  chief,  taking  offense  at  my 
failure  to  recognize  his  rank,  refused  to  allow  me 
to  cross  the  lines.  He  declared  that  he  had  authority 
to  ignore  permits  from  the  Tsarskoe  Selo  command 
or  from  Petrograd  if  local  conditions  made  my  pas- 
sage inadvisable. 

The  negotiations  in  the  villa  were  extraordinary. 
The  "Savage  Division"  had  pledged  itself  not  to 
pursue  the  campaign  against  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, and  not  on  any  account  to  attack.  With  its 


218       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

artillery  and  machine-gun  detachment,  the  Division 
was  quartered  peacefully  in  villages  to  the  South  of 
Popovo;  and  it  had  shown  its  unwillingness  to  fight 
by  making  no  entrenchments,  and  having  no  outposts, 
sentries  or  reconnoitering  detachments.  When  the 
negotiations  in  the  room  were  completed,  two 
Caucasus  officers  came  out ;  mounted  their  horses,  and, 
accompanied  by  a  Russian,  rode  off.  A  moment  later 
into  the  village  came  another  "Savage."  He  an- 
nounced that  he  had  been  sent  to  give  the  Govern- 
ment's troops  one  more  assurance  of  his  comrade's 
peaceful  intentions.  He  had  been  chosen  because  he 
was  a  Christianized  Alhasetz,  one  of  very  few  Chris- 
tians among  the  "Savages."  The  Staff  brought  him 
into  a  room,  and  told  him  he  would  be  kept  as  a 
hostage,  because  three  Government  officers  were  still 
in  the  "Savages' "  camp,  and  it  was  feared  that  they 
might  be  detained. 

The  Christianized  Alhasetz  made  a  remarkable  pic- 
ture. He  was  a  little,  very  ugly,  black-mustached  and 
black-eyed  man,  with  four  small  and  apparently  old 
scars  upon  his  neck,  and  enormous  hands.  He  was 
dressed  in  a  long  frieze  caftan,  a  shaggy  black  sheep- 
skin cloak  with  a  silver  buckle  at  the  neck,  a  lambskin 
busby  and  rough  but  highly  decorated  boots  of  a  kind 
I  had  never  seen  before.  He  was  armed  with  a  broad, 
bone-handled,  silver-inlaid  dagger,  and  wore  a  neck- 
lace of  black  and  white  horsehair  rings.  Speaking 
good  Russian,  he  told  me  that  his  name  was  Karaidse, 
which  meant  "Black  Prince."  He  was  the  son  of 


KORNILOFFS  REBELLION  219 

one  of  the  greatest  of  Alhasetz  magnates.  As  he 
announced  that,  he  put  his  hand  upon  his  dagger,  and 
said  in  a  piping  voice  which  contrasted  strangely  with 
his  ferocious  get-up,  "Of  course  we  are  very  peace- 
able." Seeing  me  eyeing  his  four  scars,  he  grinned, 
put  a  finger  to  the  largest,  and  said,  "You  think  that 
this  proves  the  contrary.  You  do  not  know  us  quiet 
mountaineers.  It  is  nearly  twenty  years  since  I  had 
a  fight  of  any  kind.  My  father  gave  all  his  seven 
male  children  daggers  as  playthings  when  they  reached 
the  age  of  two;  and  I  did  all  my  fighting  before  I 
was  six."  He  assured  me  that  the  "Savage  Division" 
would  not  under  any  circumstances  fight;  the  tribes- 
men did  not  know  why  they  had  been  marched  against 
Petrograd;  and  "when  to  their  amazement  they 
learned  that  they  were  expected  to  fight,  they  imme- 
diately proclaimed  that  they  had  come  upon  a  mission 
of  peace."  As  the  door  closed  on  the  "Black  Prince," 
he  again  put  his  hand  on  his  dagger,  and  said:  "Don't 
forget  to  report  that  we  are  very  peaceful  men,  and 
that  we  do  not  intend  to  fight." 

Next  came  a  Government  emissary,  who  had  been 
in  the  Division's  camp.  He  assured  me  that  even  if 
the  horsemen  changed  their  minds  about  not  fighting, 
they  could  not  fight,  as  their  artillery  and  machine- 
gun  units  were  mostly  Russian  and  were  entirely  on 
the  side  of  the  Government.  Without  them  the 
cavalrymen  would  be  helpless.  The  emissary  had 
carried  to  the  Division  a  proclamation  signed  by 
Filonenko,  the  Supreme  Army  Commissary,  advising 


220       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

the  "Savages"  to  abandon  their  Korniloffite  officers 
and  march  in  to  Tsarskoe  Selo.  This  they  refused 
to  do.  The  only  thing  that  might  induce  the  Division 
to  show  its  savagery  was  a  threat  to  its  officers,  who 
were  chieftains  in  the  same  stage  of  civilization  and 
with  the  same  notions  of  honor  as  Walter  Scott's 
Highlanders.  The  Kaberdinian  tribesmen  who  had 
accompanied  the  Division's  negotiators  to  Popovo 
refused  to  leave  them  alone  in  the  council  chamber 
with  the  Government's  officers.  They  insisted  upon 
being  present;  and  all  the  time  kept  their  hands  on 
the  hilts  of  the  yataghans  which  they  carried  instead 
of  swords.  When  the  Russians  in  excitement  raised 
their  voices,  the  Kaberdinians,  not  understanding  the 
language,  concluded  that  a  massacre  of  envoys  was 
about  to  begin ;  and  out,  to  the  horror  of  the  Russians, 
who  were  even  more  peaceful  than  the  "Savages," 
flew  the  terrible  yataghans. 

From  the  church  tower  I  looked  across  the  half 
a  mile  of  flat  country,  dotted  with  cottages,  which 
separated  Popovo  from  Savage  Division  territory.  I 
saw  no  sign  of  war.  There  were  a  few  bonfires; 
something  like  rudely  constructed  shelters;  and  in- 
numerable horsemen  who  seemed  to  be  scampering 
about  without  any  aim.  A  single  rifle  report  was 
heard.  After  this  inspection,  the  Staff  took  me  along 
the  Government  lines;  and  gave  me  some  strange 
facts  about  their  measures  of  defense.  There  were 
no  trenches  or  earthworks.  The  defenses  consisted 
of  a  primitive  wire  entanglement  of  two  strands  of 


KORNILOFFS  REBELLION 

barbed  wire,  run  from  tree  to  tree  and  where  there 
were  no  trees,  fixed  to  rude  trestles.  These  defenses 
were  manned  by  one  soldier  about  every  five  yards, 
and  on  the  whole  mile  of  front  inspected  by  me  were 
about  twenty  machine-guns.  There  was  no  artillery. 
Had  the  "Savage  Division"  been  as  militant  as  it 
looked,  it  would  have  captured  Petrograd  with  ease. 
The  officers  told  me  that  even  now  there  were  on 
the  whole  Pavlov sk  front  only  2500  Government 
troops,  and  most  of  these  had  arrived  the  day  before. 
In  the  first  days  of  the  revolt,  the  Government  had 
on  the  spot  four  companies  of  infantry,  all  under 
strength,  numbering  altogether  less  than  three 
hundred  men.  This  little  force,  in  constant  terror, 
faced  for  three  days  the  whole  Division,  every 
moment  expecting  a  wild  rush  which  might  develop 
into  a  massacre.  Now  the  soldiers  were  happy;  and 
one  after  another  they  crossed  themselves,  saying, 
"Thank  God  there  will  be  no  bloodshed!" 

When  I  persisted  in  my  design  to  cross  to  the 
enemy,  the  Staff  officers  still  opposed.  They  declared 
that  it  was  now  doubly  impossible  because  the 
suspicious  soldiers  had  seen  me  examining  the  Gov- 
ernment's defenses,  and  if  I  made  for  the  Savages' 
camp  they  would  conclude  that  I  was  about  to  give 
away  secrets.  I  drove  my  car  a  little  way  behind 
Popovo,  and  marched  a  mile  and  a  half  down  the 
line,  opposite  the  village  of  Tsarska  Slavianka,  the 
nearest  quarters  of  the  Division ;  and  then  showing  the 
soldiers,  who  had  not  seen  me  during  the  inspection, 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


my  permit  from  the  Commandant  at  Tsarskoe  Selo 
I  got  through  the  barbed-wire  entanglement  and 
walked  towards  the  enemy. 

The  comedy  of  civil  war  was  here  at  its  best.  On 
the  road  leading  into  the  village,  I  met  a  party  of 
Ingushes,  a  tribe  notorious  as  robbers  since  the  days 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  of  late  employed  by  the 
Autocracy  for  terrorizing  the  peasants.  They  were 
peacefully  helping  a  Finnish  washerwoman  to  carry 
linen  to  her  cabin.  Other  Ingushes  were  galloping 
about;  a  few  were  asleep  by  the  watch  fires,  wrapped 
in  their  shaggy  sheepskin  cloaks;  and  a  few  were 
carrying  on  mild  flirtations  with  peasant  girls.  Order 
and  harmony  reigned.  Farther  on  I  met  more  Kab- 
erdinians,  who  unlike  the  Ingushes  spoke  good 
Russian.  They  are  an  extremely  good-looking  race, 
and  they  boasted  to  me  that  they  were  the  most  rea- 
sonable and  best  educated  men  in  the  whole  Division. 
In  a  cotton  factory  some  way  off  were  quartered 
Abreks,  whom  even  the  fierce  Ingushes  denounced  as 
injudiciously  bloodthirsty.  The  Abreks  told  me  that 
the  Division  Commander,  General  Bagration,  a  kins- 
man of  the  former  rulers  of  Georgia  and  of  the 
Bagration  who  commanded  in  the  war  against 
Napoleon,  was  at  a  village  so  far  to  the  rear  that  I 
could  not  reach  him,  and  with  him  was  the  divisional 
staff.  Like  the  other  tribesmen,  the  Abreks  would 
not  fight.  But  also  they  would  not  surrender;  they 
were  devoted  to  their  officers;  the  officers  were 
devoted  to  Korniloff;  and  if  the  Division  surrendered 


KORNILOFFS  REBELLION  223 

the  officers  might  be  punished.  This  the  tribesmen 
would  not  permit.  That  was  the  reason  why  negotia- 
tions with  Popovo  hung  fire. 

The  Abreks  were  on  friendly  terms  with  everyone 
around.  They  had  not  murdered  or  plundered,  or 
insulted  women.  They  bore  themselves  with  dignity 
and  looked  with  supreme  contempt  upon  the  feeble, 
denationalized  Bolshevik  soldiers  and  the  Govern- 
ment's emissaries.  This  I  was  not  surprised  at;  for 
there  is  no  race  in  Russia  which  does  not,  from  its 
own  standpoint,  consider  itself  more  civilized  than 
the  Russians.  Being  Mohammedans,  brought  up 
under  severe  religious  and  family  discipline,  with  a 
strict  though  primitive  code  of  morals,  the  tribesmen 
could  feel  no  respect  for  the  demoralized,  thievish 
and  facile  lower-class  Russians  then  in  power,  who 
had  no  principles  of  conduct,  and  had  never  been  sub- 
jected to  physical,  mental  or  moral  discipline.  An 
occurrence  at  Tsarska  Slavianka  illustrated  this. 
Pleased  by  the  Savages'  good  conduct,  the  villagers 
resolved  to  reward  them;  and  a  subscription  was 
secretly  organized.  At  the  hour  of  presentation, 
across  No  Man's  Land  came  an  emissary  from  the 
Government  camp,  commissioned  to  reason  with  the 
tribesmen  and  beg  them  not  to  attack.  The  emissary, 
a  little,  unwashed,  unrepresentative  Socialist,  trem- 
bling all  over,  marched  towards  a  party  of  fiery  Abrek 
horsemen,  and  began  a  carefully  prepared  speech, 
which  the  Abreks  heard  in  contempt.  Before  he  was 
through,  up  came  the  village  delegates  and  held  out 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

a  hat  filled  with  paper  rubles.  The  leading  Abrek 
drew  himself  up;  and  with  looks  of  fury  for  the 
villagers  and  of  scorn  for  the  Government  envoy, 
exclaimed:  "You  dare  to  offer  us  money?  Do  you 
think  we  are  Russians?  Never!  We  have  religion, 
honor,  discipline,  and  duty!"  And  pointing  towards 
M.  Kerensky's  ambassador,  he  said  imperatively: 
"Give  the  money  to  him !" 

At  the  cotton  factory  I  met  Tartars,  who  con- 
stituted a  third  of  the  Division.  They  spoke  fluent 
Russian,  learned,  they  told  me,  at  Baku;  and  they 
entered  into  a  long  discourse  upon  the  rebellion. 
Before  the  Division  was  marched  against  Kerensky, 
the  officers,  they  said,  had  harangued  the  men,  promis- 
ing all  sorts  of  political  advantages  if  they  overthrew 
Kerensky,  and  at  the  same  time  assuring  them  that 
they  would  not  have  to  do  much  fighting.  Appeals 
were  made  to  their  religion;  and  the  atheism  of  the 
Petrograd  Socialists  was  cited  as  proof  that  the 
Provisional  Government  was  unfriendly  to  Islam. 
As  I  was  leaving,  a  horseman  beckoned  me  aside  and 
whispered:  "You  have  heard  from  those  men  ten 
reasons  why  we  embarked  on  our  march  against  the 
Government.  Now  let  me  give  you  the  eleventh 
reason.  Last  Thursday  our  officers  reminded  us  how 
we  had  suffered  when  in  Kolomea  in  Galicia  owing 
to  the  absence  of  a  mosque.  They  reminded  us  that 
Petrograd,  whither  we  were  bound,  about  five  years 
ago  started  to  build  a  magnificent  mosque  to  the  glory 
of  Allah.  This  mosque,  they  declared,  was  unfinished 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  225 

as  result  of  strikes  by  the  Socialists.  The  officers 
swore  by  the  Koran  and  on  the  hilts  of  their  sabers 
that  Korniloff,  who  is  himself  of  Tartar  blood,  would 
reward  the  captors  of  Petrograd  by  forcing  the 
irreligious  Bolshevik  workmen,  under  threat  of  being 
shot,  to  complete  the  mosque  within  a  month." 

Three  days  later  the  Savage  Division  surrendered 
on  condition  that  it  should  be  sent  home  to  the 
Caucasus  to  rest,  and  that  if  employed  further  in  the 
War,  it  should  not  be  required  to  fight  its  co-religion- 
ists the  Turks. 

With  the  exception  of  Ministers,  the  Bolshevik 
garrison,  and  the  working  men,  Petrograd  was 
Korniloffite  almost  to  a  man.  The  educated  classes 
believed  that  Korniloff  would  succeed  and  they  wished 
him  to  succeed.  Everywhere  I  heard  the  exclamation 
"If  only  Korniloff  comes!"  It  was  believed  that  he 
would  not  only  expel  the  feeble  and  cowardly 
ministers,  but  would  also  take  strong  measures  against 
disorder,  and  would  apply  to  the  Bolshevik  soldiers 
and  Red  Guards  the  cure  of  massacre  which  Savinkoff 
had  planned.  This  attitude  was  not  confined  to  the 
small  minority  of  Russians  who  desired  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Monarchy.  It  was  shared  by  the  Govern- 
ment's own  intimate  officials.  Among  the  young  men 
in  Kerensky's  secretarial  office,  I  heard  the  furtive 
remark,  "If  only  Korniloff  comes!"  The  organizer 
of  the  new  women's  regiment  which  was  then 
exercising  north  of  Petrograd  told  me  that  all  her 
women  soldiers  were  Korniloffites ;  but  she  added  that 


226       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

they  would  not  join  the  revolt,  because  they  had  taken 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Kerensky  Government, 
and  they  would  not  follow  the  Government's  example 
of  breaking  promises. 

On  Tuesday,  two  days  after  the  revolt  was  publicly 
announced,  it  was  plain  that  it  had  failed.  The  army 
had  deserted  and  turned  against  the  revolting 
Generals ;  the  civilian  population,  though  it  prayed  for 
KornilofFs  success,  had  not  the  courage  to  help;  and 
the  competition  between  emissaries  and  envoys  had 
ended  decisively  in  Kerensky's  favor.  Not  a  shot 
was  fired.  Although  the  Government  had  practically 
no  troops  with  which  to  defend  Petrograd,  the  Army 
at  the  front  was  obeying  it;  and  columns  of  soldiers 
attached  to  the  Provisional  Government  began  to 
converge  upon  Moghileff.  The  ex-Commander-in- 
Chief,  Alexeyeff,  went  to  Moghileff  towards  the  end 
of  the  week;  and  to  him  Korniloff,  Lukomsky  and 
all  the  other  high  officers  in  the  rebellion  surrendered 
their  swords.  The  commander  of  the  advanced  guard 
sent  against  Petrograd,  General  Krymoff,  took  his 
own  life. 

Kerensky  continued  during  the  whole  week  to  be 
in  a  hysterical  mood.  I  saw  him  twice,  and  got  from 
him  only  rhetorical  denunciations  of  Korniloff,  which 
seemed  too  violent  to  be  sincere.  In  this,  I  afterwards 
learned,  my  impression  was  correct.  He  talked  of 
the  terrible  "justice"  that  would  be  dealt  out  to  the 
rebels.  Judging  by  his  talk,  and  still  more  so  by 
the  talk  of  his  assistant  Nekrasoff,  all  the  rebel 


KORNILOFF'S  REBELLION  22T 

generals  were  to  be  shot  at  once.  Nothing  of  this 
happened.  The  Bolshevik  army  at  the  front  and  not 
the  helpless  Kerensky  was  really  in  control.  The 
situation  was  comic.  When  Korniloff  surrendered, 
Alexeyeff  feared  that  the  soldier  jailers  would  butcher 
him  as  they  had  butchered  other  high  generals  against 
whom  they  had  less  cause  of  complaint;  therefore, 
while  Korniloff  was  put  in  custody  of  the  Bolshevik 
army,  he  was  at  the  same  time  put  in  custody  of  his 
own  devoted  Tekke  Turcomans.  This  arrangement 
was  actually  officially  announced,  the  explanation 
being  given  "that  the  Tekke  Turcomans  would  see 
that  no  harm  came  to  the  former  Commander-in- 
Chief."  The  Turcomans  remained  faithful  to  their 
trust.  When  one  of  the  cowardly  Bolshevik  soldiers, 
seeing  Korniloff  exercising  in  the  courtyard  of  the 
house  where  he  was  imprisoned,  spat  contemptuously, 
a  Turcoman  drew  his  saber  and  split  the  Bolshevik 
from  head  to  midriff.  Hearing  cries,  the  rest  of  the 
Turcomans  rushed  out  and  challenged  a  whole  bat- 
talion of  soldiers  to  fight  them.  The  soldiers,  though 
outnumbering  the  Asiatics  by  fifty  to  one,  fled 
ignominiously. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


TSARISM   AND   THE  TSAR 

A  REVOLUTION  in  its  first  stage  can  afford  to  treat 
its  dispossessed  foes  with  magnanimity.  It  is  in  good 
temper,  and  confident  that  it  has  come  to  last.  When 
difficulties,  disorders  and  disillusions  arise,  when 
citizens  see  that  the  expected  Utopias  are  imprac- 
ticable; and  when  counter-revolutionary  or  restora- 
tionist  agitation  results,  a  panic  among  revolutionaries 
is  inevitable;  and  the  ignored  and  despised  partisans 
of  the  old  regime  fall  under  suspicion,  and  are  likely 
to  suffer.  Russia's  Revolution  followed  this  obvious 
course.  It  was  not  the  offenses  of  Nicholas  II,  but 
fear  that  he  would  become  a  tool  of  counter-revolu- 
tion that  caused  his  murder;  and  it  is  fear  of  counter- 
revolution that  has  impelled  the  Bolsheviks  to-day  to 
proclaim  a  formal  Reign  of  Terror  against  the 
bourgeoisie. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution,  the  Bolsheviks 
actively  opposed  the  bourgeois  government,  but  they 
showed  no  vindictiveness.  In  measure  as  the  Revo- 
lution degenerated,  sentiment  against  ex-officials, 
ex-courtiers  and  Grand  Dukes,  as  potential  dangers, 

228 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  229 

grew;  and  when  the  non-Socialist  parties  began  to 
oppose  the  Soviet's  Socialist  policy,  animosity  and 
suspicion  against  them  grew  also.  Even  before 
KornilofFs  rebellion  finally  convinced  the  Socialists 
that  the  old  regime  was  conspiring  against  the  new, 
stories  of  counter-revolutionary  plots  daily  appeared 
in  the  newspapers;  and  arrests  were  made  by  the 
Kerensky  Government.  The  first  victim  was  General 
Gourko.  Gourko  is  a  son  of  the  general  who  forced 
his  way  across  the  Balkan  Passes  in  the  Russo- 
Turkish  War  of  1877-78,  and  a  brother  of  the 
Assistant  Minister  of  the  Interior  who  played  a  role 
during  the  Stolypin  despotism.  In  the  present  war 
the  younger  Gourko  commanded  a  group  of  armies. 
He  was  a  good  general  and  a  strict  disciplin- 
arian— a  little,  wiry,  irritable  man,  whom  I  first 
saw  making  a  scene  in  the  Winter  Palace  because  he 
was  kept  waiting  for  an  audience  by  Kerensky. 
Gourko  was  arrested  early  in  August  on  the  charge 
of  royalist  plotting.  A  letter  from  him,  written  in 
the  first  days  of  the  Revolution,  was  found  among 
the  ex-Tsar's  papers,  declaring  that  he  remained  faith- 
ful to  the  dynasty,  but  that  in  the  present  stage  of 
Revolution  he  must  dissimulate.  This  implied  that 
when  the  time  was  ripe  Gourko  would  help  to  restore 
the  Tsardom.  He  was  kept  some  weeks  in  the 
Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul.  The  imprisonment  was 
illegal,  for  after  his  letter  was  written  an  amnesty  had 
been  proclaimed  for  all  political  offenses;  and  he 
demanded  a  trial,  but  instead  he  was  released  on 


230       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

parole;  and  early  in  September  was  told  that  he  would 
be  sent  into  foreign  exile. 

The  counter-revolution  panic  was  now  high.  The 
Tsar's  uncle,  the  Grand  Duke  Paul,  and  his  brother, 
the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  were  also  to  be  exiled. 
Another  dangerous  adherent  of  the  old  regime  who 
was  to  go  abroad  was  Ivan  Manasseivitch-ManuilofT, 
secretary  and  factotum  of  the  former  Prime  Minister 
Boris  Stuermer.  ManuilofI  is  a  good  type  of  the 
men  who  served  the  Autocracy.  He  began  his  official 
life  as  a  police  spy  in  Paris  and  Rome;  next  he  was 
engaged  in  diplomatic  espionage  at  the  cost  of  Japan ; 
he  was  mixed  up  in  the  police  provocation  which  led 
to  the  massacre  of  Bloody  Sunday  in  1905 ;  and  later 
he  appeared  as  a  contributor  to  the  reactionary 
Novoye  Vremya.  As  result  of  betraying  everyone, 
including  his  own  employers,  and  of  knowing  every- 
one and  everything,  particularly  the  shady  pasts  and 
secret  failings  of  exalted  persons,  Manuiloff  became 
almost  the  most  powerful  man  in  the  Empire.  He 
was  on  intimate  terms  with  the  Tsar.  He  ruled  on 
candidacies  for  high  official  positions  in  such  a  way 
that  only  men  of  bad  character  who  paid  liberally 
were  promoted;  he  led  ministers  by  the  nose;  and 
acquired  great  wealth.  After  the  outbreak  of  war 
he  went  abroad,  and  was  received  with  open  arms  by 
the  innocent  ministers  of  the  Entente,  who  from  the 
beginning  of  their  countries'  unlucky  intimacy  with 
Russia  had  an  almost  diseased  talent  for  getting  into 
relations  only  with  the  bad  elements  of  the  Tsar's 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR 

Empire.  Under  the  Stuermer  Premiership,  Manuiloff 
was  all-powerful.  He  blackmailed  business  men; 
threw  into  jail  a  Jewish  financier  who  dared  to  cut 
him  out  in  the  affections  of  an  actress;  and  was  in 
league  with  Rasputin  in  the  common  pursuit  of 
plunder  and  power. 

A  less  important  exile,  but  one  whose  record  is 
equally  enlightening  as  to  the  secret  policy  of  Tsarskoe 
Selo,  was  the  Asiatic  Badmai,  or,  as  he  Russianized 
it,  Badmayeff.  Badmayeff  was  a  Tibetan.  He  had 
been  sent  on  missions  to  his  native  country ;  and  later 
appeared  as  a  prophet  of  reaction  at  Tsarskoe  Selo. 
He  gained  his  influence  by  curing  the  bodies  of  the 
highly  placed  men  and  women  whose  souls  were 
attended  to  by  Rasputin.  His  method  was  to  douse 
his  patients  with  cold  water,  and  then  explain  to  them 
that  they  were  well.  Having  made  them  physically 
whole,  he  considered  them  ripe  for  political  enlighten- 
ment; and  he  instructed  them  in  the  healthy  reac- 
tionary way  that  always  proved  pleasing  to  the  Tsar. 
In  gratitude,  Nicholas  gave  him  the  rank  of  "Doctor 
of  Tibetan  medicine."  He  was  a  thorough  rascal, 
even  more  comic,  I  believe,  than  dangerous,  but 
dangerous  enough;  and  to  the  suspicious  Revolution 
his  presence  suggested  terrible  dangers. 

The  greatest  of  the  exiles  was  Madame  Anna 
Vuirubova.  For  days  after  the  Revolution,  Vuiru- 
bova's  name  appeared  in  the  Petrograd  and  foreign 
Press  as  the  most  remarkable  and  pernicious  Court 
figure  remaining  after  Rasputin's  death.  She  was  the 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


influence  behind  the  throne.  All  that  was  precisely 
known  about  her  was  that  she  was  young,  extremely 
beautiful,  and  the  Tsaritsa's  bosom  friend;  and  as 
the  Tsaritsa  was  considered  a  violent  reactionary  and 
a  friend  of  her  native  land  Germany,  it  followed  that 
Vuirubova  was  also  a  reactionary  and  a  friend  of 
Germany.  On  that  small  basis  of  real  knowledge, 
newspapers  printed  columns  of  revelations  about  her; 
she  had  been  on  secret  missions  to  Berlin  during  the 
war;  she  had  smuggled  the  Empress'  treasonable  mes- 
sages out  of  Russia;  she  had  advised  Nicholas  II  to 
dissolve  the  Duma  and  drown  the  Revolution  in 
blood;  she  had  supported  Rasputin's  political  adven- 
tures; and  she  was  implicated  in  his  personal  crimes. 
Vuirubova  even  figured  with  the  Empress  in  Ras- 
putin's harem.  In  theaters  and  moving  picture  shows 
she  appeared  as  a  woman  without  brains,  without 
character  and  without  clothes,  a  modern  Pompadour, 
or  Messalina,  whose  personal  depravity  was  linked 
with  a  skill  in  depraving  others  which  had  no  parallel 
in  the  corrupt  history  of  courts. 

One  popularly  believed  story  about  Vuirubova  was 
that  her  charm?  were  the  real  cause  of  Rasputin's 
death.  When  Rasputin,  whose  physical  qualifications 
for  seduction  had  no  limit,  abandoned  her  temporarily 
for  the  Tsar's  niece,  the  young  and  pretty  Princess 
Yousoupoff,  in  whose  husband's  palace  and  by  whose 
husband's  hand  he  was  executed,  the  angry  Vuiru- 
bova, who  was  ten  years  older  than  her  rival,  revealed 
the  new  romance  to  Yousoupoff.  As  this  story  is 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  233 

only  one  of  fifty  sensational  accounts  of  Rasputin's 
death,  it  need  not  be  believed;  but  as  a  story  it  is 
part  of  history ;  and  it  typifies  the  attitude  of  Russians 
to  the  woman  whom  they  called  "The  Female  Ras- 
putin of  the  Revolution."  Vuirubova  was  imprisoned 
for  several  months  in  the  Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul ; 
but  as  her  health  suffered  and  no  concrete  political 
offenses  could  be  charged  against  her  she  was  released 
in  the  summer,  and  allowed  to  live  under  domestic 
arrest  at  the  house  of  her  aunt  in  the  Znamenskaya 
Street  in  Petrograd.  There  I  made  her  acquaintance 
on  the  8th  of  September,  the  day  before  she  was  due 
to  leave  for  exile.  A  sentry  with  fixed  bayonet  was 
stationed  outside  her  door,  with  the  duty  of  watching 
visitors  and  listening  to  what  was  said;  but  he  did 
not  interfere  in  our  conversation  and  seemed  not  even 
to  notice  that  we  spoke  in  a  foreign  language. 

Vuirubova  is  a  strikingly  handsome  woman  of  just 
over  thirty,  tall  and  stoutish,  but  with  a  good  figure 
somewhat  resembling  that  of  the  Empress  Catherine 
II  in  middle  life.  She  has  a  regular,  undistinguished 
face,  a  clear,  rosy  skin,  very  handsome  gray  eyes 
and  raven  black  hair.  She  uses  a  crutch  and  limps, 
the  result  of  a  railroad  accident  early  in  the  War. 
On  her  forehead  is  a  large  scar,  inflicted,  she  said, 
by  soldiers  in  the  Fortress.  During  part  of  our 
conversation  were  present  the  aunt  with  whom  she 
lived,  and  her  father,  M.  Taneyeff,  director  for  many 
years  of  the  Tsar's  Chancellery.  Through  this  con- 
nection, Vuirubova  told  me,  she  first  met  the  Tsaritsa. 


234       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

At  eighteen  she  had  married  Vuiruboff,  a  naval 
officer,  who  went  out  of  his  mind  from  the  horrors 
of  the  Battle  of  Tsushima;  and  after  that,  she  was 
taken  up  by  "Alix"— as  she  called  the  Tsaritsa.  Of 
this  friendship,  I  quote  from  notes  made  at  the 
time: 

'The  friendship  between  me  and  the  Tsaritsa  has 
been  misrepresented.  Two  years  ago  nobody  ever 
dared  to  affirm  that  I  had  any  influence  in  politics, 
or  took  any  part  in  Court  scandals.  The  charges 
against  me  did  not  originate  with  the  revolutionaries. 
They  originated  with  my  foes  at  Court.  The  curse 
of  the  Court  was  the  malice  and  hatred  of  the  Grand 
Dukes  and  Grand  Duchesses.  With  the  exception  of 
the  Grand  Duke  Paul,  whose  wife  the  Countess 
Pahlen  is  my  relative,  all  the  Romanoffs  began  a 
campaign  against  me.  My  sole  offense  was  that  I 
kept  them  apart  from  the  Tsar  and  Tsaritsa.  Worst 
of  all  was  the  young  Grand  Duke  Dmitri  Pavlovitch. 
The  Grand  Dukes,  and  with  them  many  courtiers, 
pursued  me  for  years  with  abuse  and  calumny;  and 
their  charges  later  became  known  to  the  people  outside 
Court,  so  that  when  the  Revolution  took  place  I  was 
charged  with  being  responsible  for  all  Russia's  mis- 
fortunes. In  reality,  I  never  meddled  in  politics.  The 
Commission  of  Enquiry,  which  examined  me  in  the 
Fortress,  and  which  expected  revelations  of  my 
reactionary  and  pro-German  activities,  found  nothing 
against  me;  and  this,  and  not  illness,  was  the  reason 
why  I  was  released." 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  235 

On  the  subject  of  Rasputin,  Vuirubova  spoke  long, 
emphatically  and  very  naively.  Asked  whether  he 
really  had  the  enormous  influence  in  politics  which 
he  was  credited  with,  she  answered:  "No.  Surely 
you  understand  that  he  was  an  ignorant  peasant,  and 
therefore  could  not  possibly  meddle  in  politics?"  She 
said  this  repeatedly;  and  could  not  be  got  to  see  that 
the  vital  feature  of  the  Rasputin  epic  was  that  a 
wholly  ignorant  peasant  had  meddled  in  politics.  Of 
the  source  of  Rasputin's  personal  influence,  which  she 
admitted,  she  said : 

"Rasputin  played  a  big  role  at  Court;  but  it  was 
only  in  family  matters.  Even  here,  however,  the 
public  tells  lies.  The  accusations  of  intimate  relations 
between  him  and  the  Tsaritsa  are  untrue.  Years  ago 
he  assured  the  Tsar  that  daily  prayers  would  cure 
the  young  Grand  Duke  Alexis,  the  Heir,  whose  illness 
was  then  considered  incurable.  The  story  that  the 
illness  was  the  result  of  a  Terrorist  attempt  is  untrue. 
The  cause  was  defective  protection  of  the  blood- 
vessels, a  disease  universal  also  in  the  Battenberg 
family.  This  caused  hemorrhage  at  the  slightest 
exertion.  Rasputin's  prophecy  of  a  cure  pro\ed  to  be 
right.  He  prayed  daily,  first  alone,  and  later  along 
with  the  Tsar  and  Tsaritsa,  who  were  both  intensely 
religious  and  shared  his  faith. 

"Two  years  ago  Alexis  suddenly  recovered  his 
health;  and  he  is  now  thoroughly  sound.  Of  course, 
this  recovery  confirmed  Rasputin's  influence ;  and  after 
that  it  was  unshakable.  But  I  do  not  think  he  had 


236       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

two  ideas  about  the  government  of  Russia.  He  played 
no  role.  How  could  an  almost  illiterate  peasant  play 
a  political  role?" 

Vuirubova  had  no  great  respect  for  the  Tsar. 
"Nicholas,"  she  said,  "has  a  good  character,  and  a 
quicker  and  better  mind  than  any  of  the  good-for- 
nothing  Grand  Dukes.  His  fault  was  his  incorrigible 
weakness,  which  was  due  to  his  mother,  the  Dowager 
Empress,  who  instructed  his  tutors  to  suppress  every 
manifestation  of  initiative.  But  he  had  very  little 
natural  initiative. 

"He  hated  to  hear  bad  news,  or  unfavorable  judg- 
ments upon  others;  and  until  the  end  he  had  no  idea 
how  the  nation  detested  and  despised  him.  I  have 
heard  him  expressing  the  view  that  the  whole  country 
was  devoted  to  him;  and  only  a  few  days  before  the 
Revolution  he  told  me  that  he  was  satisfied  with 
conditions;  and  that  he  would  grant  Cabinet  respon- 
sibility after  the  War.  He  was  dumbfounded  by  the 
revolt,  and  still  more  by  the  sudden  defection  of  the 
Grand  Dukes  and  the  courtiers.  He  was  not  pro- 
German,  nor  was  the  Tsaritsa.  The  Tsaritsa  spoke 
only  English  in  ordinary  intercourse;  and  her  affec- 
tion for  me  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  I  spoke 
English  like  a  native.  She  had  no  time  for  politics, 
as  she  was  busy  managing  war  hospitals,  of  which 
we  had  seventy-nine  at  Tsarskoe  Selo.  As  for  the 
alleged  pro-Germanism  of  the  Court,  there  was  never 
any.  Some  courtiers  foresaw  that  a  prolonged  War 
would  mean  defeat  and  Revolution;  and  these 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  237 

clamored  for  peace;  but  they  were  not  pro-Germans. 
The  Tsar  steadfastly  refused  to  listen  to  their  pro- 
posals. Immediately  before  the  Revolution,  I  heard 
him  saying:  T  believe  and  hope  that  we  shall  soon 
soundly  beat  the  enemy.' ' 

Vuirubova  ended  by  declaring  that  she  had  no 
connection  with  monarchist  plots,  and  did  not  believe 
they  could  succeed,  as  all  the  Grand  Dukes  were 
equally  worthless.  Next  day,  strongly  guarded,  she 
left  the  Finland  railroad  station  for  exile  abroad; 
and  with  her  were  the  spy  ManuilofT  and  the  ''Doctor 
of  Tibetan  Medicine"  Badmayeff.  Their  path  to 
exile  was  brief.  Before  they  reached  the  junction 
of  the  railroads  branching  to  Helsingfors  and 
the  Swedish  frontier,  the  soldiery  got  news  of 
Korniloff's  revolt;  and  in  a  new  fit  of  panic,  they 
arrested  all  "counter-revolutionaries."  They  pulled 
Vuirubova,  Manuiloff,  and  the  "Doctor  of  Tibetan 
Medicine"  from  the  train  and  dragged  them  to  Hel- 
singfors, from  where  they  were  taken  to  the  Sveaborg 
island  fortress  where  they  were  kept  in  prison  for 
weeks.  Vuirubova  was  later  sent  to  Petrograd  and 
there  held  in  jail  or  under  domestic  arrest.  My  judg- 
ment was  that  she  was  a  personally  fascinating  but 
not  intelligent  woman;  and  that  if  she  had  any  in- 
fluence in  politics  it  was  of  a  primitive  kind,  as  was 
that  of  the  wholly  uneducated  Rasputin,  who  accord- 
ing to  a  biographer  did  not  till  the  end  of  his  days 
know  the  difference  between  the  Senate  and  the 
Council  of  the  Empire.  But  if,  as  was  generally 


238       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


believed,  Vuirubova  worked  in  harness  with  Rasputin, 
she  may  have  been  a  formidable  force;  and  the 
Provisional  Government's  desire  to  get  rid  of  her  as 
a  danger  to  the  Revolution  is  easily  explained. 

Before  these  measures  were  taken  against  suspected 
Tsarists,  the  Government  began  to  feel  uneasy  about 
the  Tsar.  In  the  first  weeks  of  the  Revolution  he 
had  been  entirely  ignored.  Later,  as  the  Revolution 
seemed  threatened,  demands  were  made,  first  that  he 
should  be  more  closely  watched;  next,  that  he  should 
be  in  a  safer  place  than  Tsarskoe  Selo,  which  is  only 
a  day's  march  from  Petrograd;  next,  that  he  should 
be  exiled;  and  finally,  that  he  should  be  tried  and 
punished.  Late  in  May,  having  heard  stories  of  the 
rigor  of  his  treatment,  I  visited  Tsarskoe  Selo,  and 
found  that  the  system  of  guarding  had  fallen  alto- 
gether to  pieces.  The  once  strongly-watched  "kitchen 
entrance"  was  in  charge  of  only  two  soldiers,  who 
played  draughts  when  on  duty;  the  sentries  outside 
the  park  carried  no  rifles;  and  at  two  of  the  park 
gates  there  were  no  sentries  at  all.  A  few  days  later, 
the  Commander  of  the  Petrograd  Military  District — 
who  was  a  lieutenant  in  rank — inspected  Tsarskoe 
Selo;  and  discovered  this  general  neglect.  The  ex- 
treme Left,  already  suspecting  a  bourgeois  counter- 
revolution, believed  that  the  Provisional  Government 
was  culpably  negligent.  In  the  Council  of  Deputies 
the  Bolsheviks  demanded  that  the  Tsar  be  sent  to 
Siberia  and  put  to  labor  in  the  mines.  The  Kronstadt 
"republic/'  prominent  in  all  extreme  plans,  declared 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  239 

that  it  must  get  the  Tsar  into  its  power;  and  the 
mutinous  sailors  at  Helsingfors  backed  the  demand. 
While  Prince  Lvoff  was  in  power  no  attention  was 
paid  to  these  demands.  Though  a  mild  man  by  nature, 
Lvoff  was  firm  in  knowledge  of  the  honesty  of  his 
intentions,  and  could  not  be  forced  to  act  by  suspicious 
panic-mongers.  This  changed  when  Kerensky  became 
Prime  Minister;  for  Kerensky  had  to  propitiate  the 
Council  of  Deputies;  and  further  his  conscience  was 
not  clean.  He  had  already  engaged  in  mild  repression 
against  the  Petrograd  Bolsheviks,  and  was  intriguing 
with  the  Army  leaders  to  crush  Bolshevism  altogether. 
He  knew  that  if  the  ex-Tsar  was  within  reach  of 
Petrograd,  any  military  move  against  the  Bolsheviks 
would  certainly  be  represented  as  a  monarchist  plot. 
To  forestall  such  charges  it  was  necessary  to  show 
severity  to  the  Tsar,  and  to  get  him  out  of  the  way. 
That,  not  any  real  fear  of  counter-revolution  on  the 
part  of  the  Government,  dictated  the  decision  of  the 
Cabinet  to  send  Nicholas  II  into  exile  in  Siberia.  The 
threat  of  a  German  advance  gave  it  a  further  good 
excuse. 

The  Government  did  everything  to  keep  the  exile 
a  secret.  Its  reason  for  secrecy,  the  Minister  of 
Finances  Nekrasoff  told  me,  was  that  it  feared  an 
attack  upon  the  train  by  the  Bolsheviks,  and  the 
assassination  of  the  Imperial  Family.  Not  even  the 
head  of  the  railroad  department  knew  where  the  train 
was  bound.  Instead  of  the  gorgeous  Imperial  train, 
in  which  the  Tsar  had  come  to  Tsarskoe  Selo  from 


240       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Moghileff  five  months  before,  was  an  ordinary  train 
of  three  sleeping  cars,  a  dining  car  and  several  third 
class  cars,  with  a  second  train  for  baggage  and  for 
thirty  dependents  who  were  allowed  to  share  the  exile. 
On  the  cars  of  the  Tsar's  train  were  white  circles 
with  red  crosses;  and  the  public  was  later  told  that 
this  was  the  train  that  carried  the  American  Red 
Cross  mission  from  Vladivostok.  Nicholas  was  not 
told  where  he  was  going,  and  was  allowed  only  a 
short  time  for  preparations.  At  three  in  the  morning, 
he,  the  Tsaritsa  and  their  five  children  drove  in  two 
motor  cars  through  the  park  to  the  railroad  station. 
The  Tsar  was  depressed.  He  asked  the  Commander 
of  the  Tsarskoe  Selo  garrison  whether  he  was  not 
to  be  sent  to  the  Crimea,  where  he  had  a  palace  and 
"could  live  like  a  civilized  man";  and  on  getting  an 
evasive  answer,  he  began  to  cough,  and  tears  rose  in 
his  eyes.  The  Tsaritsa  was  in  better  spirits.  Dressed 
in  a  long  chinchilla  cloak,  and  showing  gloveless  hands 
covered  with  rings,  she  got  out  of  her  motor-car; 
kissed  her  son  in  view  of  the  soldiers;  and  laughed. 
Nicholas  was  in  a  colonel's  uniform,  with  a  khaki 
blouse,  and  an  open  overcoat.  He  wore  no  decora- 
tions. With  him  were  his  adjutant  Prince  Dolgorou^ 
koff  and  his  physician  Botkin.  With  the  Tsaritsa, 
apart  from  the  servants,  went  only  two  Ladies  of  the 
Court;  and  with  the  four  girl  Grand  Duchesses  there 
were  a  French  and  an  English  governess,  and  several 
maids.  As  always,  the  procession  was  completed  by 
the  giant  sailor  Derevenko,  the  guardian  of  the  Heir 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR 


since  birth.  At  the  last  moment  up  came  soldiers 
of  Tsarskoe  Selo  garrison,  and  declared  they  were 
going  on  the  train.  They  had  got  news  of  the  exile; 
and,  following  the  usual  practise,  were  determined  not 
to  entrust  the  Tsar  to  agents  of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment only  As  the  train  pulled  out,  the  soldiers 
on  the  track  jeered,  one  of  them  calling  out  "Sibirsky 
Tsar!"  meaning  "Tsar  of  Siberia,"  and  at  the  Em- 
press, who  looked  defiantly  out  of  the  window,  "Mrs. 
Rasputin."  That  was  the  last  the  Imperial  family 
saw  of  their  prison. 

The  Tsar's  destination  v/as  a  mystery  for  some 
days.  Some  believed  that  he  was  bound  for  the 
Crimea,  some  for  his  estate  in  Kostroma  Province, 
the  seat  of  the  Romanoffs  before  their  elevation  to 
the  Tsardom.  The  newspapers  printed  telegrams  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  announcing  that 
mysterious  trains,  with  blinds  down  and  soldiers  on 
the  platforms  had  passed;  and  one  telegram  even 
asserted  that  the  train  was  moving  towards  Moghileff, 
the  army  headquarters  which  was  not  far  from  the 
enemy's  front.  This  caused  a  panic  in  the  Narva 
suburb  of  Petrograd.  A  crowd  of  Bolshevik  work- 
ing-men proclaimed  that  the  counter-revolutionary 
Government  of  Kerensky  had  treacherously  sent  the 
Tsar  for  safety  to  Germany,  and  that  the  result  would 
be  an  immediate  German  invasion  with  the  aim  of 
Restoration.  Only  when  the  train  was  near  its 
destination  was  it  officially  announced  that  this  was 
Tobolsk,  the  capital  of  the  Siberian  province  of  the 


RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


same  name.  The  statement  declared  that  owing  to 
reasons  of  state  the  Government  had  decided  to  trans- 
fer the  ex-Emperor  and  Empress  to  a  new  residence, 
whither  they  were  taken  with  the  requisite  measures 
to  insure  their  safety,  and  that,  "with  them,  of  their 
own  free  will,  went  their  children  and  certain  of  their 
entourage." 

With  the  exile,  the  irony  of  Destiny  in  dealing  with 
Nicholas  II  reached  its  climax.  Tobolsk  is  a  dirty 
and  disagreeable  little  town  several  hundred  miles 
from  a  railroad,  cut  off  from  the  world  except  during 
the  brief  summer  months  when  it  is  reached  by 
steamer  along  the  Irtysh.  There  was  irony  in  the 
fact  that  the  Imperial  family  was  lodged  in  the  so- 
called  "palace"  of  the  former  governors,  a  twenty- 
roomed,  tumble-down  and  very  dirty  stucco  house, 
without  running  water,  baths,  or  the  most  ordinary 
conveniences.  More  irony  lay  in  the  fact  that  Tobolsk 
is  the  center  to  which  during  centuries  the  Romanoff 
Tsars  sent  their  foes  and  critics.  A  Russian  revolu- 
tionary poet  called  Tobolsk  "a  town  of  exiles'  tears 
and  blood  from  beaten  backs,  the  real  metropolis  of 
all  crushing  Tsarism."  As  no  modern  Tsar  ever 
resorted  to  exile  on  such  a  great  scale  as  Nicholas  II, 
it  is  hard  to  conceive  a  fitter  punishment. 

In  Russia  every  important  event  quickly  becomes 
a  myth,  the  source  of  hundreds  of  legendary  ramifica- 
tions added  in  good  faith  by  the  imaginative  and 
accepted  in  good  faith  by  the  credulous.  The  transfer 
of  the  Tsar  followed  the  rule.  One  legend  was  that 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  243 

he  had  not  been  sent  into  exile  at  all;  but  had  been 
smuggled  out  to  Japan  by  the  counter-revolutionary 
Government.  Although  telegrams  from  Tobolsk 
described  his  arrival  and  his  strict  guarding,  the  Bol- 
shevik working-men  and  soldiers  credited  the  legend; 
and  immediately  set  themselves  to  foil  the  Govern- 
ment's treasonable  aim.  Siberia  practically  rose  in 
revolt.  The  railroad  stations  in  the  Eastern  provinces 
were  invaded  by  armed  and  riotous  soldiers,  by  Red 
Guards  and  by  revolutionary  peasants,  who  stopped 
trains,  dragged  out  of  them  on  suspicion  men  and 
even  women  who  in  no  way  resembled  the  Tsar;  and 
showed  particular,  almost  comic,  zeal  in  everything 
that  related  to  America  and  to  Red  Cross  trains. 
The  Bolsheviks  imagined  that  the  ruse  of  the  Red 
Cross  train  was  adopted  by  the  Government  in  order 
the  more  easily  to  smuggle  Nicholas  out  of  the  coun- 
try. The  amerikansky  poyezd — American  railroad 
train — became  part  of  the  myth.  Siberian  experts 
affirmed  that  the  train  was  brought  specially  to  Russia 
by  Americans  as  part  of  a  great  international  plot 
of  rescue.  From  that  day  on  until  his  execution  with- 
out trial  in  July,  Nicholas  II  has  been  a  myth  to  the 
Russian  people.  But  most  of  the  stories  of  monarchist 
counter-revolutionary  conspiracies  have  been  woven 
around  the  names  of  other  members  of  the  Romanoff 
family. 

These  stories  gained  more  credence  abroad  than  in 
Russia,  where  they  are  encouraged  merely  as  good 
excuses  for  Bolshevik  measures  of  repression  against 


244       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

rival  parties.  No  Grand  Duke  has  any  prospect  of 
becoming  Tsar  within  visible  time.  The  foreign 
newspapers'  usual  candidate,  the  late  Commander-in- 
Chief  Nicholas  Nicolaievitch,  has  no  backing  at  all. 
He  was  known  before  the  War  for  swearing,  drink- 
ing and  a  certain  martinet  mannerisms  which  had 
nothing  to  do  with  military  talent.  As  Commander 
of  the  vast  Russian  armies  early  in  the  War  he  was 
thoroughly  incapable.  This  was  shown  in  October, 
1914,  when  after  Hindenburg's  retreat  from  Warsaw 
he  walked  into  a  German  trap,  and  so  destroyed  the 
offensive  capacity  of  his  army.  After  the  Revolution 
he  was  a  prisoner  on  his  estate  in  the  Crimea,  his 
neighbor  being  the  Dowager  Tsaritsa  Marie.  The 
other  Grand  Dukes  have  never  played  prominent  roles 
in  politics  or  in  war ;  and  to  the  public  they  are  hardly 
known.  The  only  monarchist  plot  so  far  associated 
with  Grand  Ducal  names  proved  to  be  a  common 
fraud.  Five  rogues  prepared  documents  containing 
particulars  of  a  plan  to  restore  the  dynasty;  and  at 
the  head  of  the  list  of  subscribers  of  money,  they 
set  the  names  of  the  Grand  Dukes  Paul  and  Michael. 
Armed  with  this  they  approached  persons  of  supposed 
monarchist  leanings,  and  obtained  money.  It  was  this 
event  that  led  to  the  arrest  of  the  two  Grand  Dukes; 
and  further  to  the  arrest  of  ladies  of  the  well-known 
official  family  Hitrovo,  one  of  whom  was  charged 
with  attempting  to  smuggle  letters  into  the  prison 
palace  at  Tobolsk.  The  Bolsheviks,  though  well  aware 
that  these  monarchist  "plots"  had  no  foundation, 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR 


made  use  of  them  for  agitation  purposes;  and  the 
extremists  of  the  Anchor  Place  at  Kronstadt  pro- 
claimed that  they  justified  an  immediate  and  universal 
massacre  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

In  Siberia  in  the  second  half  of  1917,  a  real 
monarchist  agitation  which  was  elemental  and  had  not 
the  character  of  a  plot  was  under  way.  Like  most 
Russian  popular  movements  it  was  a  compound  of 
religious  mysticism  and  politics.  The  hero  was  a 
starctz.  A  starctz,  which  means  literally  a  venerable 
old  man,  is  a  pious  man  of  holy  repute  and  often  of 
very  unholy  conduct.  Such  was  the  most  famous  of 
all  startzi,  Rasputin.  The  new  starctz,  who  called 
himself  Mitriukha,  was  a  blacksmith  by  origin.  When 
shoeing  horses  became  unprofitable  owing  to  the  lack 
of  iron,  he  let  his  beard  grow,  that  being  necessary  for 
holiness,  and  entered  into  a  league  with  the  ex- 
secretary  of  a  penitentiary,  a  police  spy  and  bad 
character,  Gromoff.  The  pair  decided  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  peasants'  growing  discontent  with  the 
Revolution.  The  peasants,  Gromoff  saw,  reasoned 
primitively.  "We  are  hungry,  unclothed,  oppressed 
by  the  Bolsheviks,  defeated  abroad  and  without 
security  at  home;  in  short,  all  the  ills  which  we  bore 
under  the  Tsardom  are  repeated  to-day  in  aggravated 
form.  Therefore  the  present  Government  is  worse 
than  the  Tsardom;  and  we  had  better  restore  the 
Tsardom.  This  will  bring  back  the  relatively  bearable 
conditions  of  pre-revolutionary  times." 

The     blacksmith     was     apparently     sincere;     but 


246       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Gromoff  was  a  rogue,  who  had  no  object  except  the 
bettering  of  his  position  which  would  result  from  the 
restoration  of  the  spy  system.  He  incited  the  peasants, 
assuring  them  that  the  Revolutionary  Government 
had  forbidden  the  meeting  of  the  Church  Congress 
at  Moscow,  and  that  it  was  going  to  take  the  Church's 
treasures  and  the  church  bells  and  coin  money  with 
them.  The  excited  peasants  marched  into  Tobolsk, 
acclaimed  the  Tsar  and  demanded  to  see  him.  The 
Commandant,  being  unable  to  induce  them  to  disperse, 
stationed  at  a  palace  window  a  soldier  who  somewhat 
resembled  Nicholas.  When  the  monarchist  peasants 
saw  him  they  prostrated  themselves  and  prayed,  and 
then  without  having  seen  the  real  Tsar  tramped  away. 
The  monarchist  enthusiasm  in  certain  parts  of  Siberia 
grew.  The  Kerensky  Government  refused  to  allow 
the  news  to  be  printed  in  Petrograd.  It  authorized 
only  the  statement  that  many  pilgrims  were  coming 
to  see  the  Tsar  for  religious  reasons.  The  Bolsheviks 
took  alarm,  and  the  Tsar  became  the  first  victim.  He 
was  forced  to  sleep  in  a  room  with  only  one  door; 
and  outside  the  door  slept  two  emissaries  from  the 
Bolsheviks.  But  the  movement  went  further. 
Mitriukha  preached  and  prayed  zealously.  His 
reputation  as  a  holy  man  grew;  and  with  it  grew 
the  belief  of  the  more  ignorant  peasants  that  the 
specific  evils  of  the  Revolution  would  cease  if  Nicholas 
was  restored. 

Every  week  great  crowds  of  peasants,  sometimes 
from    vast    distances,    collected    in    Tobolsk.      They 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  247 

mobbed  in  the  streets  the  young  Grand  Duchess  Olga, 
the  only  member  of  the  Imperial  family  who  went 
out  of  the  palace;  assured  her  that  they  had  heard 
that  Nicholas  was  starving;  and  gave  her  money — 
which  the  soldiers  took  from  her.  The  Government 
took  fright,  and  decreed  the  transfer  of  the  Tsar  to 
a  monastery  about  twenty  miles  from  Tobolsk.  When 
the  Grand  Duchess  visited  the  monastery  the  peasants 
again  gathered,  stormed  the  building,  begged  to  see 
"the  holy  room"  which  Nicholas  was  to  occupy,  and 
wept  and  danced  themselves  into  a  frenzy.  The  Gov- 
ernment again  took  fright,  and  postponed  the  transfer. 
East  of  Lake  Baikal  the  agitation  produced  serious 
riots.  Crowds  of  peasants  eager  to  see  the  captive 
Tsar  stormed  the  train,  and  beat  the  town  militia. 
The  holy  man  and  the  penitentiary  secretary  made 
fiery  speeches,  adjuring  the  peasants  to  proclaim  an 
independent  state,  of  which  the  ruler  should  be  the 
Autocratic  Tsar,  with  a  council  of  peasants  and  work- 
ing-men. There  would  be  no  Constitution.  "The 
Autocrat  would  face  his  people  directly,  under  the 
blue  sky  of  heaven,  and  learn  their  needs  without  the 
officials,  the  army  officers,  and  the  middlemen  who 
in  the  past  crushed  Russia  by  standing  between  the 
moujiks  and  their  ruler."  Tobolsk  became  a  holy 
city.  At  one  time  thirty  thousand  peasants  were  on 
their  way  thither  with  no  other  motive  than  seeing 
the  Tsar.  The  staretz  organized  a  pilgrimage  along 
the  railroad  in  a  slow  train,  stopping  at  every  station 
and  exhorting  the  people  to  rally  to  Nicholas' 


248       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

standard.  The  Bolsheviks  opposed  him;  and  at 
Nizhny  Udinsk  they  tore  off  his  clothes  and  threw 
him  into  prison.  At  night  he  escaped.  He  now 
declared  that  Heaven  had  shown  its  approval  of  his 
mission  by  saving  him,  naked  as  he  was,  from  freezing 
to  death;  and  he  announced  that  he  would  organize 
a  procession  of  entirely  naked  men  who  would  prove 
their  holiness  by  facing  triumphantly  the  blasts  of  the 
Siberian  winter.  The  procession  was  to  start  on  the 
226.  of  January,  a  day  on  which  everywhere  pious 
Russians  break  the  river  ice  and  bathe  in  cold  water. 
The  naked  men  would  tramp  through  the  snow  to 
Tobolsk ;  and  implore  the  Tsar  again  to  become  father 
of  his  people.  An  attempt  was  actually  made  to  carry 
this  out.  From  the  outskirts  of  Krasnoyarsk,  with 
the  thermometer  far  below  zero,  a  dozen  peasants 
entirely  without  clothing,  but  with  bags  of  food  on 
their  backs,  issued  from  their  cabins  and  declared 
that  they  were  going  into  the  town  to  meet  five  thou- 
sand more  naked  "Pilgrims  of  Monarchism."  Before 
they  had  got  down  the  village  street,  only  three,  all 
badly  frostbitten,  were  alive.  This  movement  died 
down  in  the  spring;  and  it  was  finally  killed  by  the 
transfer  of  the  Tsar  to  Ekaterinburg  in  the  Urals, 
the  scene  of  his  murder  in  July. 

The  prospects  of  a  strong  monarchist,  or  even 
Romanoff  restorationist  movement  are  to-day  greater 
in  Russia  than  at  any  time  since  the  Revolution. 
Probably  Nicholas  II  was  the  most  hated,  as  he  was 
certainly  the  unworthiest,  of  all  Tsars.  But  history 


TSARISM  AND  THE  TSAR  249 

shows  that  royal  martyrdom  is  the  seed  of  monarchy 
as  surely  as  persecution  is  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
Already  the  Orthodox  clergy  has  resumed  its  ancient 
prayers  for  "the  slave  of  God,  Nicholas,  who  suffered 
much" ;  the  politically  minded  "Intelligentsiya"  is  ask- 
ing whether  in  unsettled  countries  a  severely  Con- 
stitutional monarch,  set  above  parties,  is  not  a  useful 
nucleus  of  political  solidarity;  and  nationally  minded 
men  are  remembering  that  though  the  Romanoffs 
ruthlessly  sacrificed  political  freedom  to  national 
greatness,  the  Revolution  has  ruthlessly  sacrificed 
both.  The  mass  of  Russians  are  still  republican;  and 
the  overthrowal  of  Bolshevism  by  the  Social-Revolu- 
tionary and  Menshevik  majority  would  not  in  itself 
bring  about  a  monarchical  restoration.  That  would 
be  incompatible  with  the  Socialist  state  organization 
upon  which  these  latter  parties,  no  less  than  the 
Bolsheviks,  are  bent.  But  Russia  seems  to  be  moving 
towards  the  restoration  of  bourgeois  government 
methods,  probably  without  the  restoration  of  Capital- 
ism and  private  land  ownership;  and  bourgeois  gov- 
ernment may  easily  culminate  in  a  re-established 
monarchy.  At  present  no  desirable  candidate  for  the 
Tsardom  is  in  sight;  but  when  the  time  comes  there 
are  forgotten  Romanoffs  and  princes  of  other  Euro- 
pean houses  one  of  whom  may,  after  the  long  period 
needed  for  the  creation  of  a  really  strong  monarchist 
party,  ascend  the  Imperial  throne. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    BASTILLE   OF    PETROGRAD 

THE  history  of  Russian  revolution  before  1917  is 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  Bastille  of  Petrograd, 
the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  The  Fortress 
lies  on  the  northern  side  of  the  river  Neva,  where 
Peter  first  built;  and  from  the  southern  side,  across 
a  mile  of  gleaming  water  or  crystalline  snow,  may 
be  seen  the  sharp  spires  of  the  old  and  new  fortress 
churches  where  Romanoff  Tsars  lie  buried,  gray 
bastion  walls  dropping  sheer  into  the  stream,  and 
flanks  embosomed  in  trees.  The  Fortress  is  the  terror 
of  Russian  history;  and  its  name  is  bound  up  with 
legends  which  are  hardly  grimmer  than  the  facts. 
There,  in  an  underground  cell  was  imprisoned  Peter's 
erratic  son  Alexis;  and  there,  says  legend,  he  was 
tortured  before  execution.  There  in  the  reign  of 
Catherine  II  languished  the  beautiful  pretender, 
the  self-styled  Princess  Tarakanoff,  who  set  her- 
self up  as  daughter  of  the  Tsaritsa  Elizabeth  and 
as  claimant  to  the  Imperial  throne.  The  supposed 
fate  of  the  princess  is  subject  of  a  famous  picture  by 
Flavitsky,  which  shows  her  in  manacles,  standing  in 

250 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        261! 

her  "stone  sack"  while  the  flooded  Neva  rises  above 
her  knees.  The  Fortress  held  several  of  the  aristocrat 
Decembrists  who  challenged  Nicholas  I ;  and  paid  for 
their  plot  upon  the  scaffold  or  in  Siberia.  Nekrasoff's 
poem  "Russian  Women"  tells  how  the  wives  of  these 
victims  voluntarily  went  into  exile.  There  early  in 
the  seventies  until  cold  and  damp  undermined  his 
health  was  Kropotkin;  and  there  in  1905  was  Maxim 
Gorky,  as  result  of  his  participation  in  the  vain 
attempt  of  a  group  of  prominent  Petersburgers  to 
prevent  the  massacre  of  the  workmen  who  marched 
upon  the  Winter  Palace  under  the  leadership  of  the 
police-agent  Father  Gapon. 

In  March,  1917,  the  Fortress  was  full  of  enemies 
of  the  Autocracy.  These  were  released  at  once  by 
the  revolutionary  soldiery;  and  into  the  cells  were 
cast  the  ministers  and  courtiers  of  Nicholas  II. 
Enthusiasts  believed  that  once  these  were  tried  and 
disposed  of,  political  imprisonment  would  be  for  ever 
at  an  end.  But  within  four  months  the  Fortress  gates 
closed  upon  the  Bolshevik  agitators  who  revolted  in 
Mid-July  against  the  Lvoff  Cabinet;  two  months  later 
was  imprisoned  there  a  leader  in  the  Korniloff  revolt ; 
and  finally  the  Fortress  was  the  jail  of  Kerensky's 
ministers  and  of  other  foes  of  the  Bolsheviks  them- 
selves. The  Fortress  is  an  epitome  of  modern  Russian 
history. 

The  Fortress  is  not  all  an  inaccessible  prison.  It 
is  a  complex  of  defensive  works,  churches,  barracks 
and  administrative  offices  occupying  a  large  area;  and 


RUSSIAN 


ASPECTS 


before  the  Revolution  it  was  a  favorite  place  for 
Sunday  promenades.  The  present  fortress-prison  is 
only  a  single  bastion,  the  Troubetskoi.  Into  this 
after  the  Revolution  it  was  as  hard  to  penetrate 
as  before.  The  imprisoned  Autocratist  officials  were 
under  trial;  and  mystery  surrounded  the  preliminary 
examinations  which  were  being  held.  The  ignorant 
soldiers  who  dominated  the  Provisional  Government 
through  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers 
Deputies  were  jealous  and  suspicious;  they  were 
determined  that  no  privileges  should  be  given  to  the 
captives;  and  they  regarded  attempts  of  outsiders  to 
visit  the  Bastion  with  distrust.  The  negotiations  which 
led  me  into  the  Bastion  lasted  nearly  a  month;  and 
were  nearly  wrecked  at  the  end.  Although  I  was  in 
company  of  the  Assistant  Procuror  of  Petrograd,  the 
soldier  guards  on  the  spot  laughed  at  our  permit, 
declaring  defiantly  "We  are  the  only  Government 
here";  and  not  until  an  educated  non-commissioned 
officer  invented  the  story  that  I  was  "a  well-known 
Socialist"  were  we  allowed  to  pass. 

Before  my  inspection,  several  of  the  best-known 
prisoners  had  been  released  as  ill.  One  was  the 
former  Prime  Minister  Stuermer,  who  in  general 
belief  was  a  pro-German  traitor,  though  in  fact  he 
was  probably  nothing  worse  than  a  servile  bureaucrat. 
Another  was  Anna  Vuirubova.  Still  in  the  Bastion 
was  the  most-hated  of  all,  Alexander  Protopopoff, 
first  known  as  a  progressive,  patriotic  Duma  member; 
next,  seduced  by  the  Tsaritsa,  as  an  oppressive 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        253 

Minister  of  the  Interior;  and  finally  as  ally  and  slave 
of  Rasputin.  Protopopoff  was  Russia's  Strafford. 
To  foreigners  he  first  became  known  through  the 
Stockholm  scandal.  On  his  way  home  from  England 
he  discussed  peace  prospects  with  an  emissary  of 
Baron  Lucius,  Germany's  Minister  to  Sweden.  He 
excused  himself  on  the  ground  that  the  transaction 
was  known  in  advance  to  the  Russian  Minister;  and 
that  he  had  talked  only  of  commercial  relations  after 
the  War;  but  all  Russians  who  desired  to  fight  out 
the  War  regarded  him  as  a  traitor. 

In  the  Bastion  was  General  Rennenkampf,  also  an 
international  figure.  Rennenkampf  was  one  of 
Kuropatkin's  generals  in  the  war  with  Japan,  where 
he  distinguished  himself  by  the  vigor  which  was 
usually  shown  by  German  Russians  and  by  the  ruth- 
less execution  and  shooting  without  trial  of  Chinese 
and  Manchurians  whom  he  suspected  of  espionage. 
He  next  appeared  as  suppressor  of  revolution.  This 
was  during  the  general  strike  in  October,  1905.  The 
Siberian  railroad  was  then  cut  for  several  days  and 
local  "republics"  sprang  up,  and  defied  Petersburg. 
Rennenkampf  made  himself  infamous  by  deeds  which 
recalled  the  "Bloody  Assizes"  of  the  English  Judge 
Jeffreys.  His  "Hangman's  progress"  was  made  in  a 
railroad  train,  in  which  he  proceeded  from  town  to 
town,  hanging  mercilessly  and  without  trial.  The 
story  went  that  the  gallows  stood  in  his  own  car. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  present  War,  he  was  a  com- 
rade of  the  late  General  Samsonoff;  and  the  two 


254       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

raided  East  Prussia  with  half  a  million  troops,  until 
the  invasion  ended  in  the  disastrous  defeat  of  Tannen- 
berg.  Rennenkampf  was  accused  of  not  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  his  brother  general;  and  inevitably  he 
was  charged  with  being  in  the  pay  of  Germans.  He 
continued  in  command  for  a  time,  but  later  was 
removed  and  disgraced.  Now  he  lay  in  the  Trou- 
betskoi  Bastion  under  several  charges,  among  them 
treason  and  robbery. 

With  Rennenkampf  in  the  Bastion  were  Bieletsky, 
ex-Director  of  the  Department  of  Police,  manager  of 
the  spy  system  and  accomplice  of  agents  provocateurs; 
and  Makaroff,  like  Protopopoff  a  former  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  who  was  accused  of  several  crimes.  The 
Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the  Tsarist  spy  system 
discovered  that  Makaroff  connived  at  the  election  to 
the  Duma  of  a  burglar,  the  aim  being  to  gain  a 
reactionary  who  would  make  trouble  in  the  legislature. 
In  the  Bastion  were  further  the  chief  of  the  army 
motor  supply  service,  accused  of  corruption;  General 
Voyeikoff,  commandant  of  the  Palace,  an  enthusiast 
for  sport,  but  at  the  same  time  one  of  Nicholas'  evil 
advisers;  and  Prince  Alexander  Dolgoroukoff,  a 
cavalry  commander  who  championed  Korniloff  in  his 
revolt  against  Kerensky.  The  other  prisoner  of 
distinction  was  the  former  Minister  of  Justice 
Schtcheglovitoff,  whom  the  late  Count  Witte  char- 
acterized to  me  as  the  "cleverest,  most  corrupt  man 
in  Europe."  As  an  authority  on  national  and  inter- 
national law,  Schtcheglovitoff  had  no  equal;  and  he 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        255 

was  a  man  of  naturally  humane  and  generous 
impulses,  but  like  scores  of  other  men  of  real  attain- 
ments he  had  succumbed  to  the  seductions  of  the 
Court ;  and  his  acts  in  corrupting  Justice,  and  throw- 
ing a  veil  of  sham  legality  over  the  abuses  of  the 
Autocracy,  have  hardly  a  parallel  even  in  Russian 
history. 

The  Troubetskoi  Bastion  is  of  typical  obsolete 
fortress  construction,  pentagonal  in  shape,  surround- 
ing a  small  courtyard.  Along  four  sides  runs  a 
double-storied  tier  of  cells  with  very  thick  walls  and 
low,  arched  windows  heavily  barred.  The  cells  are 
the  "stone  sacks,"  famous  in  revolutionary  literature; 
and  according  to  popular  belief,  all  are  partly  below 
the  ground,  and  only  a  few  feet  above  normal  river 
level.  Hence  revolutionists  tell  of  scores  of  captives 
drowned  during  floods  like  the  Princess  Tarakanoff. 
In  fact,  the  princess  was  not  drowned,  and  was  not 
imprisoned  in  this  bastion,  but  in  another  part  of  the 
fortress.  The  lower  tier  of  cells  is  upon  ground  level ; 
and  here  prisoners  of  the  Tsardom  were  liable  to  be 
flooded  out;  but  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  Revolu- 
tion's captives  were  all  in  the  upper  story,  well  out  of 
reach  of  floods.  Each  tier  contains  eighteen  cells; 
and  as  there  were  then  only  eight  prisoners,  there 
was  room  enough  upstairs.  Before  visiting  these  cells 
I  had  glimpses  of  Protopopoff  and  Bieletsky.  The 
governor's  cabinet  opens  into  dim,  small  rooms  used 
for  the  judicial  examination  of  prisoners,  and  (again 
according  to  legend)  scenes  under  the  Autocracy  of 


256       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


violence  and  even  of  methodical  torture.  The 
governor  threw  open  one  door;  pointed  to  a  stout, 
gray-haired  man  who  was  gesticulating  before  the 
examining  magistrate,  and  exclaimed  "That  is 
Bieletzky!"  and  then  opened  another  door,  showing 
a  severe  official  at  a  table  taking  notes,  and  before 
him  a  regular,  aquiline  profile  silhouetted  against  the 
barred  window.  "That  is  Protopopoff,"  said  the 
governor.  Thereupon  he  closed  the  door,  and  led  me 
to  the  cells. 

If  one  ignores  the  psychical  torment  caused  by 
years  of  captivity,  the  Bastion  is  not  as  grim  a  place 
of  captivity  as  is  generally  believed.  The  white- 
washed cells  are  large  and  clean,  paved  with  reddish 
cement,  and  lighted  from  electric  lamps  set  in  the 
wall,  attached  to  which  are  nightlights  shining  always 
upon  the  beds  so  that  the  jailers  may  watch  prisoners 
through  a  slit  in  the  door.  The  cells  are  not  damp; 
and  the  sanitary  arrangements  are  modern.  The 
worst  defect  is  the  bad  natural  lighting,  a  result  of 
the  thick  walls.  All  the  cells  open  upon  a  corridor 
which  follows  the  pentagonal  line  of  the  Bastion;  and 
all  have  red,  iron-bound  doors,  with  pigeon-holes  for 
the  handing  in  of  food. 

In  these  cells  the  prisoners,  with  one  exception,  had 
been  since  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution.  Except 
that  they  were  gibed  at  by  the  guards,  they  were 
well  treated.  At  first  compelled  to  wear  prison  dress, 
they  now  had  their  own  clothes;  and  received,  if  they 
to  pay,  the  ordinary  rations  of  an  army  officer. 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        257 

Otherwise  they  ate  the  private  soldier's  ration.  The 
officials  told  me  that  Protopopoff  was  the  only  one 
then  not  receiving  officer's  food.  He  was  in  a  mystical 
frame  of  mind,  which  later  terminated  in  officially 
certified  insanity;  and  he  wept  daily,  and  declared 
that  he  deserved  to  suffer  as  he  was  guilty  in  great 
part  of  his  country's  misfortunes. 

The  first  captive  shown  at  close  quarters  was 
Rennenkampf.  I  had  seen  him  before  the  Revolution 
in  the  Petrograd  Hotel  d'Europe,  shortly  after  he 
was  deprived  of  military  rank;  when  he  still  wore 
uniform,  and  was  a  well  set  up,  dissipated  looking 
officer  of  German  Junker  type.  Now,  he  lay  upon 
his  mattress,  staring  fixedly  at  the  night  lamp,  with 
his  hair  disheveled,  and  his  dirty  hands  hanging  on 
each  side  of  the  bed.  He  was  very  negligently 
dressed;  and  looked  like  a  typical  Terrorist  prisoner. 
He  lived  in  chronic  terror.  When  it  was  proposed 
to  transfer  him  to  another  prison  for  the  sake  of 
his  health,  he  refused  the  offer  and  begged  on  his 
knees  to  remain,  declaring  that  if  the  mob  caught 
him  he  would  be  torn  to  pieces.  As  we  entered  he 
turned  his  head,  and  showed  fright.  The  assistant 
procurer  told  him  who  I  was;  and  he  began  to  talk, 
declaring  in  a  whining  voice  that  his  hour  had  come, 
for  he  had  no  doubt  that  if  the  Revolution's  courts 
acquitted  him,  the  soldiers  would  kill  him  before  he 
was  released.  Of  the  charges  against  himself,  he 
refused  to  talk  in  detail;  but  with  a  sardonic  grin, 
he  declared  that  his  chief  offenses  were,  "General 


258       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

SamsonofFs  defeat  and  my  own  German  name";  and 
added  savagely,  "I  am  told  that  the  cause  of  Russia's 
defeat  is  that  three-quarters  of  her  officers  are  Ger- 
mans; the  real  cause  is  that  three-quarters  of  them 
are  Russians."  He  asked  some  questions  about  the 
Revolution,  but  showed  no  great  interest  in  the 
answers ;  and  begged  me  not  to  publish  in  the  Russian 
newspapers  anything  he  had  said.  I  believe  that  fear 
as  to  his  fate  had  almost  deprived  him  of  sanity. 

The  governor  assured  me  that  well-educated  men 
have  always  stood  the  psychical  strain  of  Fortress 
imprisonment  better  than  men  of  Rennenkampfs 
type.  The  ex-Minister  of  Justice  Schtcheglovitoff 
had  shown  no  fear;  but  had  behaved  with  great 
dignity;  and  to  keep  his  mind  occupied  had  begun 
to  study  Finnish.  In  the  prison  library,  in  addition 
to  Russian,  English,  French,  German  and  Italian 
books,  I  found  a  brand-new  collection  of  Finnish 
works,  specially  purchased  for  Finnish  citizens  who 
under  an  unconstitutional  law  passed  during  the 
Stolypin  despotism  were  liable  to  be  kidnaped  and 
brought  for  trial  before  Russian  courts.  The  new 
prisoners  were  not  allowed  to  read  newspapers;  and 
had  practically  no  knowledge  of  the  course  of  the 
Revolution;  their  guards  never  spoke  to  them;  and 
they  exercised  in  the  courtyard  one  by  one.  Rennen- 
kampf  was  under  the  impression  that  Nicholas  II 
still  reigned,  as  a  Constitutional  monarch;  and  the 
only  mitigation  of  his  chronic  terror  was  a  vain  belief 
that  the  old  system  would  be  restored. 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        259 

The  suspicion  of  the  revolutionary  soldiers  in  every- 
thing that  concerned  the  captives  went  to  extremes. 
The  Provisional  Government's  guards,  a  regular 
military  unit,  were  posted  in  the  periphery  of  the 
Bastion  where  they  never  saw  the  inmates;  whereas 
the  unofficial  guards,  representatives  of  the  revolu- 
tionary regiments,  were  stationed  inside  and  exercised 
the  real  control.  The  only  attempt  at  escape  since 
the  Revolution  was  made  by  a  Jew-baiter  who  made 
a  dash  against  one  of  these  unofficial  guards,  and 
was  nearly  shot  dead  after  he  reached  the  court- 
yard. This  courtyard  makes  an  incongruous  impres- 
sion. It  is  reached  by  a  forbidding  door,  enclosed 
in  a  metal  cage  in  which  prisoners  wait;  but  is  itself 
a  verdant  paradise,  altogether  out  of  harmony  with 
its  surroundings.  Rising  to  the  Bastion  roof  are 
poplars,  aspens  and  maples,  and  underneath  are 
jasmine  and  lilac  bushes.  Between  the  pavement 
crevices  rise  untrodden  grasses  and  wild  flowers;  and 
as  if  to  mar  this  charm,  in  the  middle  stands  a  shape- 
less and  very  ugly  brown  bath-house. 

The  officials  told  me  further  stories  of  the  prisoners. 
The  former  Prime  Minister  Stuermer  had  returned 
before  his  release  to  a  state  of  childhood.  Brought 
exhausted  into  the  fortress,  after  being  dragged 
between  rows  of  soldiers  who  threatened  to  club  him 
to  death,  he  broke  down  and  cried.  He  was  asked 
to  sit  in  his  cell  until  sheets  were  brought  for  his 
bed;  but  before  the  sheets  were  brought  he  was  fast 
asleep  on  the  cement  floor.  On  waking,  he  refused 


260       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

to  believe  that  there  was  any  Revolution;  and 
declared  that  he  had  been  arrested  for  pro-Germanism 
by  order  of  the  Tsar.  He  begged  to  be  sent  abroad 
to  die  in  peace,  declaring  that  he  had  always  served 
his  country  faithfully;  and  he  offered  as  condition 
of  release  to  give  information  about  his  colleagues' 
intrigues.  The  examining  magistrate  refused,  declar- 
ing that  the  Government  had  already  enough  facts 
to  hang  all  ministers  if  it  chose.  After  that  Stuermer 
lapsed  into  a  dazed  condition;  and  his  health  got 
worse  until  he  was  transferred  to  the  hospital  where  he 
died.  The  former  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Makaroff, 
was  defiant.  He  denounced  the  Revolution,  and 
prophesied  that  it  would  perish  at  the  hands  of 
extreme  Democracy.  "The  Government  of  the  Tsar/' 
was  his  judgment,  "was  wholly  vicious;  but  I  sup- 
ported it  as  a  patriotic  man,  and  did  nothing  to  ag- 
gravate its  badness.  I  was  honestly  convinced  that 
all  possible  Russian  governments  must  be  bad." 
Prison  and  Terror  had  been  the  only  means  of  keep- 
ing order  and  of  correcting  despotism,  since  Tartar 
days;  and  they  would  continue  so  to  the  end. 

This  argument  by  an  authority  as  to  the  natural 
character  of  Russian  history  gained  emphasis  from 
a  visit  to  the  obsolete  dungeons,  situated  under  the 
present  commandant's  lodging,  outside  the  Bastion. 
These  dungeons  are  real  "stone  sacks."  The  dirty 
windows  are  guarded  by  cumbrous  bar-work  designed 
to  imitate  rows  of  halberds;  and  peering  from  the 
outside  through  these  bars  one  sees  a  damp  floor 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        261 

which  must  be  well  under  flood  level,  and  filthy 
dripping  gray  walls.  We  looked  into  the  cell  of 
Peter's  son  Alexis  and  that  of  the  "Princess 
Tarakanoff."  No  relics  remain  of  either.  There  is 
still  alive,  I  learned,  an  old  fortress  servant  who  had 
had  it  from  father,  grandfather  and  great-grand- 
father, all  also  fortress  servants,  that  these  cells  con- 
fined the  soldier  lovers  of  Catherine  II  before  they 
were  put  to  death.  Back  in  the  governor's  cabinet, 
we  examined  the  roll  of  past  captives,  with  several 
famous  names.  One  entry  reads  "1905,  January  12; 
Pieshkoff,  Alexei  Maximovitch" — the  real  name  of 
Maxim  Gorky;  and  another  reads  "Kisska  (a  girl's 
pet  name) ;  aged  18;  identity  uncertain;  believed  real 
surname  is  Mazantzeff;  arrived  February  5,  1908; 
handed  over  for  execution  February  7."  Such  execu- 
tion of  unknown  persons  was  common.  Caught  in 
Terrorist  acts  or  "expropriations,"  they  refused  to 
reveal  their  identity  for  fear  of  betraying  accomplices. 
The  unknown  girl  "Kisska,  aged  18,"  was  executed 
merely  on  suspicion,  the  suspicion  being  that  she  was 
engaged  in  a  plot  to  murder  the  Tsar's  uncle,  the 
Grand  Duke  Vladimir,  who  commanded  Petrograd's 
garrison  during  the  massacre  of  January,  1905. 

My  visit  to  the  Bastion  concluded  in  a  second  meet- 
ing with  Protopopoff.  As  we  were  inspecting  the 
roll,  the  Assistant  Procurer  put  his  head  into  a  side 
room,  and  announced  that  the  ex-Minister's  examina- 
tion was  ending.  Into  the  cabinet,  two  soldiers  with 
fixed  bayonets  behind  him,  walked  the  man  I  had  most 


262       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

wished  to  see  at  close  quarters.  I  saw  a  man  of 
middle  height  and  slight  figure,  with  small,  fine 
features,  and  a  short,  sparse  grayish  beard,  with  eyes 
which  were  unnaturally  bright  and  almost  feverish, 
and  with  an  expression  of  remarkable  refinement  and 
dignity.  He  looked  more  like  a  fine  drawn  English 
aristocrat  than  a  Russian.  He  was  neatly  dressed 
but  wore  no  collar.  On  his  face  was  a  smile. 

He  stepped  quickly  into  the  middle  of  the  room 
and  suddenly  stopped.  The  assistant  attorney  looked 
at  him,  and  looked  again  at  me,  and  said: 

"That  is  M.  Protopopoff." 

I  exchanged  a  few  words  with  him.  "We  can 
speak  English,"  he  began.  The  assistant  attorney 
intervened  "Please  do  not  speak  English,"  he  said. 

Protopopoff  began  to  smile  nervously  and  I  thought 
sarcastically.  He  moved  his  head  quickly  from  side 
to  side,  twitched  his  hands  in  a  nervous  and  feminine 
gesture,  came  very  close  to  me  and  began  to  speak 
in  Russian.  From  what  the  Procurer  had  told  me 
I  knew  that  I  should  not  be  allowed  to  touch  on 
politics,  so  I  asked  him  regarding  his  health;  and 
this  led  to  a  very  brief  but  very  remarkable  discussion. 
In  reply  to  my  inquiry  about  his  health,  he  said: 

"It  is  too  good." 

That  answer  surprised  me.  Still  intending  to  keep 
away  from  politics,  I  asked  him  about  his  treatment. 

"Have  you  any  complaint  to  make?" 

He  looked  at  me  again  with  a  sarcastic  smile  and 
said,  "Why  ask  me  a  question  of  the  kind  that  always 


THE  BASTILLE  OF  PETROGRAD        263 

in  such  conditions  answers  itself?    How  could  I  make 
any  complaint?" 

"I  did  not  mean  to  ask  whether  you  complain  of 
being  in  prison,"  I  explained.  "I  asked  merely  if 
there  is  anything  you  have  to  complain  of  in  the 
conduct  of  the  prison  officials." 

"I  have  no  complaint  of  any  kind,"  answered 
Protopopoff;  and  again  smiling  enigmatically,  he 
continued : 

"Would  any  of  your  Americans  complain  of  their 
treatment  if  they  were  conscious  that  they  were 
desperate  criminals?" 

He  continued  to  smile  apparently  in  sarcasm;  and 
I  concluded  that  he  was  being  harshly  treated;  and 
that  this  was  his  oblique  manner  of  putting  the  fact. 
I  said,  "You  mean  that  as  irony?" 

"It  is  not  irony,"  he  answered.  "I  have  no  right 
whatever  to  complain  because  I  am  guilty  of  a  very 
serious  crime." 

The  Procurer  looked  at  him  sharply. 

"That,"  I  said,  "is  a  strange  remark  to  make  in 
the  presence  of  an  official  who  has  come  here  in 
order  to  pile  up  evidence  against  you." 

Protopopoff  again  flashed  his  head  suddenly  from 
side  to  side  and  said,  this  time  with  the  same  smile, 
which  seemed  half  sincere  and  half  sardonic: 

"I  supply  the  evidence  myself."  He  uttered  this 
with  tremendous  emphasis.  "I  am  guilty  of  the  most 
awful  crime  that  a  man  can  commit,  the  crime  of 
failing  to  understand  the  spirit  of  my  age." 


264       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

That  was  Protopopoff's  confession.  Repeating  the 
words  "spirit  of  my  age"  and  again  making  the 
delicate  feminine  gestures  with  his  hands,  followed 
by  his  two  soldier  guards  with  fixed  bayonets,  he  went 
out  of  the  room.  A  month  later  it  was  announced 
that  he  was  suffering  from  progressive  paralysis;  and 
I  believed  he  was  released.  Most  of  the  other 
prisoners  remained  in  the  Bastion  until  the  Bolshevik 
Revolution,  when  they  were  joined  by  Kerensky's 
Cabinet.  Rennenkampf  was  let  out;  and  two  Keren- 
sky  ministers,  ShingariefT  and  Kokoshkin,  were  sent 
from  the  fortress  to  a  hospital,  where  they  were 
butchered  while  in  bed  by  Bolshevik  soldiers.  The 
Fortress  prison  continues  to  play  its  traditional  role; 
for  it  now  contains  a  new  class  of  prisoners — Social- 
revolutionaries,  Mensheviks  and  members  of  other 
extremely  radical  and  progressive  groups  who  oppose 
the  regime  of  the  Soviets,  and  are  therefore  classed 
as  counter-revolutionaries,  and  foes  of  popular  gov- 
ernment. Probably  the  Fortress  will  not  have  run 
its  full  course  as  instrument  of,  and  corrective  to, 
despotism  until  it  houses  the  Bolsheviks  as  guests  of 
the  still  more  radical,  and  rapidly  growing  Anarchists, 
or  some  even  more  extreme  party  yet  to  be  formed. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  TRIUMPH   OF   BOLSHEVISM 

IN  past  chapters  stress  was  laid  more  than  once 
upon  the  fact  that  the  steady  swing  of  the  Revolution 
from  moderate  Right  to  extreme  Left  was  pre- 
determined by  the  overmastering  dread  among  the 
masses  of  a  Counter-Revolution.  For  this  mass 
psychosis  there  was  never  any  substantial  foundation. 
The  whole  of  Russian  society  was,  and  is,  radical  in 
its  views  of  policy  and  economy.  The  aim  of  the 
designed  blood-bath  of  Bolshevism,  which  Savinkoff 
wanted,  and  probably  would  have  had  if  Korniloff 
had  succeeded,  was  not  to  restore  the  ancient  regime, 
nor  even  to  establish  a  Conservative  government. 
It  was  to  attain  the  strong  governmental  power — the 
silnaya  vlast — of  which  so  much  had  been  heard  in 
the  Malachite  Hall  and  at  the  Moscow  Congress,  and 
upon  the  need  of  which  men  differing  so  fundamen- 
tally as  Korniloff  and  Savinkoff,  the  Octobrist 
Rodzianko  and  the  Socialist  ex-convict  Tseretelli 
agreed.  The  Bolshevik  leaders  were  not  themselves 
opposed  to  the  principle  of  strong  governmental 
power;  and  their  policy  since  their  triumph  has  been 
a  series  of  unavailing  attempts  to  create  such  power. 

265 


266       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Their  opposition  was  against  the  holding  of  such 
power  by  any  Cabinet  in  which  even  one  of  the  hated 
bourgeoisie  was  a  minister.  They  believed  that  strong 
Government  power  in  bourgeois  or  coalition  hands 
meant  Counter-Revolution,  a  return  to  administrative 
despotism  and  a  reversal  of  the  practically  Socialist 
policy  in  Financevand  Industry  which  had  been  entered 
upon  and  in  part  carried  through  immediately  after 
the  March  Revolution. 

Measured  from  this  angle  the  abortive  Korniloff 
revolt  was  a  disaster.  Its  success  would  probably  have 
brought  about  the  restoration  of  order,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  success  would  have  meant  a 
superiority  of  military  force  on  Korniloff's  side.  As 
it  was  not  fated  to  succeed,  it  would  have  been  better 
had  no  attempt  been  made.  In  that  case  a  more 
reasonable  system  might  have  succeeded  Kerensky's. 
Under  no  circumstances  could  Kerensky  have  much 
longer  held  power. 

Immediately  after  the  revolt  the  Counter-Revolu- 
tion  obsession  became  a  mania.  In  popular  opinion 
all  Russians  were  now  divided  into  two  classes:  honest 
men  faithful  to  the  Revolution  and  to  the  Socialist 
doctrines  with  which  it  was  identified,  and  counter- 
revolutionaries. Advocacy  of  a  strong  governmental 
power  was  henceforth  equivalent  to  counter-revolu- 
tionism. No  middle  party  remained.  The  Bolshevik 
extremists,  now  strongly  reinforced  from  moderate 
Socialist  quarters,  began  a  fierce  press  and  platform 
campaign  against  the  whole  educated  and  propertied 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM       267 

class;  and  in  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies,  in 
the  Council's  newspaper  Isvestiya,  this  class  was 
denounced  as  not  only  sympathizing  with,  but  also 
as  directly  engaged  in  KornilofFs  conspiracy.  Its  aim 
was  to  crush  the  Revolution  in  blood,  and  to  restore 
bourgeois  if  not  monarchial  government.  The  ex- 
tremists demanded  the  deprivation  of  all  rights,  the 
outlawry,  and  even  the  trial  and  execution  of  the 
whole  "Intelligentsiya,"  in  particular  of  the  Constitu- 
tional-Democrats. Their  mildest  suggested  punish- 
ment was  loss  of  the  right  to  vote  for  or  be  elected 
to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  In  the  Army  a  clean 
sweep  was  to  be  made  of  counter-revolutionaries  once 
and  for  all. 

Kerensky's  attempt  to  keep  office  at  all  costs  became 
increasingly  difficult.  He  was  still  trying  to  hold  a 
middle  course  between  Socialists  and  bourgeoisie;  and 
his  Cabinets,  several  times  remade,  were  on  coalition 
principles  till  the  last.  But  after  the  revolt  he 
attempted  to  swing  somewhat  towards  the  Left,  and 
to  base  his  position  more  upon  the  support  of  the 
moderate  Socialists,  while  still  excluding  the  Bol- 
sheviks who  were  in  theory  a  suppressed,  illegal  mob 
of  agitators.  Their  newspapers  appeared  only  sur- 
reptitiously; and  their  leader  Lenine  was  still  in 
hiding  to  evade  execution  of  the  order  for  his  arrest 
issued  in  July,  which  had  not  been  withdrawn.  Only 
such  Bolshevik  leaders  were  supposed  to  be  at  large 
as  had  supported  the  Government  during  the  Korniloff 
revolt 


268       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

In  fact,  Kerensky,  almost  completely  abandoned  by 
the  educated  and  propertied  classes,  was  more  and 
more  in  the  Left's  control;  and  he  fulfilled  its  chief 
demands.  After  assuming  the  position  of  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  fleet,  he  cleansed 
the  Headquarter's  Staff  of  all  officers  suspected  of 
sympathizing  with  Korniloff .  This  was  done  through 
his  new  Minister  of  War,  General  Verkhovsky, 
formerly  Commander  of  the  Military  District  of 
Moscow,  who  had  shown  great  vigor  in  crushing  a 
military  revolt  in  East  Russia,  and  was  supposed  to 
be  a  moderate  Socialist.  Verkhovsky,  rendering 
reports  to  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies  as  if  it 
was  a  Government  institution,  cleansed  the  Staff  in 
such  a  thorough  way  that  not  one  competent  officer 
remained.  By  this  means,  Kerensky,  of  course  not 
intentionally,  continued  the  process  of  ruining  the 
Army  which  he  began  six  months  before  when  he 
agreed  to  the  destruction  of  the  authority  of  officers. 

Kerensky's  new  policy  did  not  succeed.  The  rea- 
son of  his  failure  was  the  further  strengthening  of 
the  Bolsheviks  by  the  Korniloff  revolt.  Dread  of 
Counter-Revolution  continued  to  drive  the  working 
men  and  soldiers  more  and  more  to  the  Left;  and 
immediately  after  the  rebellion,  in  elections  for  the 
Council  of  Deputies  at  Petrograd  and  Moscow,  the 
Bolsheviks  for  the  first  time  obtained  majorities,  and 
so  captured  the  executives.  Kerensky,  Cheidze  and 
the  other  moderate  Socialists  in  the  Petrograd 
executive  resigned;  and  thereafter  the  Councils  were 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM        269 

predominantly  Bolshevik.  The  panic  on  the  score  of 
counter-revolution  had  done  its  work;  and,  at  least 
in  the  two  capitals,  the  moderate  Socialist  parties  were 
regarded  almost  as  counter-revolutionary  as  the 
bourgeoisie. 

As  far  as  this  popular  judgment  concerns  Kerensky, 
it  was  thoroughly  justified;  and  the  nation  soon 
learned  why  this  was  so.  The  Bolsheviks  had  always 
distrusted  him  more  than  they  distrusted  other  leaders 
of  the  moderate  Socialist  groups;  and  they  resented, 
or  rather  made  capital  out  of,  his  half-hearted 
measures  of  repression  after  the  July  riot.  Now  they 
learnt  that  Kerensky  was  indeed  a  "counter-revolu- 
tionary," though,  as  was  inevitable  from  his  character, 
an  indecisive  and  timid  one.  It  transpired  that  his 
anger  and  amazement  at  KornilofFs  revolt  were 
humbug  and  fraud.  It  was  he  himself  who  invited 
Korniloff  to  send  troops  to  Petrograd.  He  designed 
to  crush  the  Bolsheviks.  Later,  seeing  that  the  Petro- 
grad garrison  was  growing  more  and  more  Bolshevik, 
he  began  to  doubt  whether  this  policy  would  succeed 
if  it  came  to  an  armed  collision;  and  he  abandoned 
the  plan;  and  denounced  as  a  traitor  Korniloff,  who 
had  fulfilled  stoutly  his  part  of  the  agreement.  This 
revelation  was  made  to  me  first  by  M.  Gobetchiya, 
who  some  days  before  the  facts  were  published, 
declared  that  "everyone,"  meaning  the  initiated,  knew 
that  Kerensky  started  the  whole  thing,  and  then  took 
fright  and  withdrew.  A  few  days  later,  the  Terrorist 
Savinkoff,  Commander  of  Petrograd  during  the 


270       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

revolt,  and  the  Chief  Army  Commissary  Filonenko 
confirmed  publicly  Gobetchiya's  story;  and  weeks 
afterwards  General  Alexeyeff  declared  that  Kerensky 
knew  of  the  coup  from  the  first. 

The  details  are  still  in  dispute.  It  is  admitted  that 
the  Prime  Minister  and  the  Commander-in-Chief  long 
negotiated  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Government 
upon  an  anti-Bolshevik  platform.  The  plan  was  to 
form  something  like  a  dictatorship  at  Petrograd. 
Savinkoff  was  sent  by  Kerensky  to  Korniloff  to 
arrange  for  the  proclamation  of  martial  law. 
Korniloff  was  to  send  troops,  including  the  "Savage 
Division/'  under  any  commander  who  was  not  sus- 
pected of  counter-revolutionary  leanings.  Korniloff, 
it  was  charged,  broke  the  last  condition  by  appointing 
as  his  commander  Krymoff  (the  general  who  com- 
mitted suicide)  who  was  considered  a  monarchist. 
Elaborate  negotiations  went  on  as  to  the  composition 
of  a  new  Government  which  was  to  include  both 
Korniloff  and  Kerensky.  Korniloff's  plan  was  to 
restore  discipline  in  the  army  by  military-revolu- 
tionary courts,  to  militarize  the  railroads  and  war 
workshops,  and  to  restore  the  disciplinary  powers  of 
army  officers.  The  collision  between  the  two  chief 
conspirators  was  due  partly  to  a  misunderstanding 
created  by  Korniloff's  envoy,  Vladimir  Lvoff,  and 
partly  to  carelessness  by  Kerensky.  Lvoff  submitted 
to  Kerensky  on  behalf  of  Korniloff  three  plans,  the 
second  of  which  provided  for  the  formation  of  a 
directory  within  the  cabinet,  with  the  participation  of 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM        271 

himself  and  Kerensky,  while  one  provided  for  the 
appointment  of  Korniloff  alone  as  dictator.  After 
Lvoff  had  divulged  his  mission  to  Kerensky,  Kerensky 
asked  Korniloff  by  telegram:  "Do  you  insist?" 
Korniloff,  thinking  this  question  referred  to  the  plan 
that  both  should  share  power,  replied:  "Yes  I  insist"; 
but  Kerensky  understood  this  to  mean  that  Korniloff 
insisted  upon  a  dictatorship  by  himself  alone;  and 
without  asking  any  further  questions,  he  broke  off 
communication,  denounced  Korniloff  and  proclaimed 
a  state  of  Civil  War.  Although  the  exact  details  have 
never  been  revealed,  the  revelations  are  sufficient  to 
prove  that  Kerensky  played  a  traitorous  and  cowardly 
role,  in  his  relations  to  Korniloff;  and  that  he  was 
dishonest  in  his  relations  to  the  parties  of  the  Left 
The  Bolsheviks  now  raged  furiously  against  him. 
They  painted  him  as  the  chief  counter-revolutionary, 
a  traitor  to  the  Revolution,  who  had  planned  to  crush 
the  popular  movement  in  blood.  Kerensky  had  not 
the  nerve  for  carrying  through  any  such  plan;  and 
I  doubt  whether  the  Bolshevik  hatred  was  genuine. 
But  his  bad  faith  and  irresolution  cost  him  many 
of  his  supporters.  The  educated  classes,  the  Constitu- 
tional Democrats  and  the  Moscow  Industrial  Group 
did  not  forgive  him  his  weakness  in  turning  his  back 
on  Korniloff,  though  he  had  only  acted  as  they  had 
themselves.  After  the  exposure,  his  fall  at  the  hands 
of  the  Bolshevik  garrison  of  Petrograd  and  the  Red 
Guard  workmen  was  only  a  question  of  days.  Though 
he  was  still  in  theory  supported  by  the  moderate 


272       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

Socialists,  these  showed  no  particular  zeal  to  defend 
him,  and  they  would  probably  have  openly  repudiated 
him  were  they  not  attached  to  the  doctrine  of  coalition 
Government  and  opposed  to  the  Bolshevik  claim  for 
a  purely  Socialist  Cabinet.  Kerensky  seemed  to 
realize  his  fate.  He  gesticulated  and  said,  "I  am 
supposed  to  be  supported  by  all  reasonable  men,  but 
there  are  no  reasonable  men  in  Russia."  The  evacua- 
tion of  Petrograd,  he  told  me,  was  the  only  remedy; 
and  this  now  became  his  favorite  plan.  His  statement 
to  me  was  made  after  the  Bolsheviks  captured  the 
Petrograd  Council  of  Deputies,  but  before  they  cap- 
tured the  Council  at  Moscow.  Even  after  the  latter 
event,  Petrograd  was  more  Bolshevik  than  Moscow; 
and  Kerensky  vainly  imagined  that  by  moving  to 
Moscow  or  to  some  city  farther  to  the  East,  he  would 
escape  the  sword  hanging  over  his  head. 

The  excuse  for  the  removal  given  to  the  people  was 
the  overcrowding  of  Petrograd.  In  fact,  this  over- 
crowding was  very  great;  instead  of  the  pre-War 
population  of  a  million  and  a  half,  there  were  now 
nearly  three  millions,  as  result  of  the  flood  of  refugees 
from  the  front  and  of  the  increase  of  army  institu- 
tions and  of  the  garrison.  Epidemics  and  starvation 
were  threatened.  But  the  Bolshevik  Council  of 
Deputies  was  determined  to  keep  the  Government  in 
its  power,  and  Kerensky,  timid  as  always,  did  not 
dare  to  take  the  plunge  suddenly.  "Evacuation"  was 
carried  through  piece-meal.  Many  institutions  left 
the  city  while  the  Government  itself  remained.  The 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM        273 

preparations  were  made  secretly.  In  mid-September 
were  packed  for  removal  the  contents  of  the 
Hermitage  Gallery,  the  great  collection  of  pictures 
which  includes  so  many  magnificent  Rembrandts.  In 
the  Foreign  Office  the  archives  were  packed  in  wooden 
cases;  and  they  lay  in  the  corridors  and  on  the  stair- 
ways for  weeks,  while  the  Government  was  collecting 
courage  to  go  away.  The  treasures  of  the  Petrograd 
churches  and  monasteries,  being  in  the  hands  of 
resolute  monks,  were  removed  sooner.  They  were  put 
upon  barges  in  the  Neva;  and  sent  on  a  journey  of 
several  thousand  miles  by  river  and  canal  until  they 
reached  towns  on  the  Volga.  The  complete  evacua- 
tion of  Petrograd  was  not  carried  out  until  after  the 
Bolsheviks  had  come  into  power  and  had  concluded 
their  separate  peace  with  Germany  and  Austria. 

Kerensky  had  now  no  real  power.  But  the  all- 
powerful  Council  of  Deputies  resolved  to  rob  him 
even  of  the  shadow  of  power.  After  the  Moscow 
Congress  and  before  the  Korniloff  revolt,  the  plan 
had  been  mooted  of  creating  a  new  national  congress 
to  sit  in  permanency  until  the  Constituent  Assembly 
met,  and  this  plan  took  shape  in  a  "Democratic 
Congress"  to  be  held  at  Petrograd.  The  August 
Moscow  Congress  was  sanctioned  and  organized  by 
the  Government ;  but  in  the  new  Democratic  Congress 
the  nominal  Government  had  no  share  whatever.  It 
was  a  creation  of  the  Council  of  Deputies.  The 
Council  organized  it,  making  it  representative  of  the 
workmen  and  soldiers,  and  giving  very  little  repre- 


274       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

sentation  to  other  classes.  The  Bolsheviks  even 
proposed  that  the  bourgeoisie,  being  "counter-revolu- 
tionary," should  be  altogether  excluded. 

As  the  Councils  of  Deputies  were  entirely  private 
bodies,  their  new  creation,  the  Democratic  Congress, 
was  an  unofficial  institution.  But  the  Council  decided 
that  it  should  nevertheless  play  the  role  of  a 
"Preliminary  Parliament" ;  and  they  insisted  that 
Kerensky  should  recognize  it,  and  agree  that  all  future 
cabinets  should  be  responsible  to  it  on  the  principle 
of  Parliamentarism.  The  Congress  would  nominate 
its  own  new  cabinet.  This  proposed  humiliation 
bitterly  hurt  Kerensky;  and  his  adherents  declared 
that  he  would  never  recognize  the  authority  of  the 
Congress;  and  would  even  refuse  to  appear  before  it. 
The  Left  retorted  that  if  so  they  would  simply  depose 
him,  and  form  a  new  cabinet  which  would  be  put  into 
power  by  the  Petrograd  garrison,  executing  the  orders 
of  the  Congress.  Kerensky  continued  to  vacillate. 
But  as  usual  he  had  to  give  way,  and  a  day  before 
the  Congress  met,  it  was  made  known  that  he  would 
attend  it  and  render  it  an  account,  without,  however, 
recognizing  its  official  authority.  The  Bolsheviks 
demanded  that  he  should  also  make  a  full  confession 
of  his  role  in  KornilofFs  rebellion. 

Before  the  opening  of  the  Congress,  a  new  sensa- 
tion was  promised.  The  whereabouts  of  the  founder 
and  leader  of  Bolshevism,  Lenine,  had  been  a  mystery 
since  the  order  issued  for  his  arrest  in  July.  It  was 
rumored  that  he  was  in  Sweden,  in  Switzerland,  and 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  BOLSHEVISM       275 

even  in  Germany.  His  newspapers  now  declared 
jubilantly  that  he  had  been  all  the  time  hiding  in 
Russia,  protected  by  faithful  friends;  and  that  he 
intended  to  appear,  supported  by  armed  adherents, 
at  the  Congress.  Let  the  miserable  Kerensky  govern- 
ment arrest  him  if  it  dared!  The  Bolshevik  soldiers 
would  know  how  to  punish  such  sacrilege.  The  Gov- 
ernment replied  that  the  order  for  arrest  still  held 
good;  but  it  qualified  this  by  forbidding  arrest  once 
Lenine  succeeded  in  entering  the  Congress  building. 
This  was  the  Alexander  Theater.  Petrograd  feared 
a  blood-bath.  But  Lenine,  though  he  was  actually  in 
Russia,  did  not  appear. 

Twelve  hundred  persons  attended  the  Congress; 
and  the  majority  gave  the  Government  a  new  brief 
lease  of  life.  Kerensky  delivered  a  long  speech  which 
contained  no  clear  account  of  the  Korniloff  conspiracy, 
but  only  a  statement  that  the  Government  had  known 
for  months  of  a  counter-revolutionary  plot,  and  had 
done  its  best  to  foil  it.  The  Congress  was  a  tem- 
porary check  for  Bolshevism.  Before  it  met  the  Bol- 
sheviks boasted  that  the  majority  would  endorse  their 
plan  of  proscription  for  the  educated  classes,  and 
would  certainly  demand  an  entirely  Socialist  Cabinet 
responsible  to  the  Councils  of  Deputies.  Instead,  the 
Congress,  though  by  a  small  majority,  endorsed  the 
old  and  favorite  Kerensky  expedient  of  government 
by  coalition. 

But  Kerensky's  fall  was  imminent;  and  he  knew  it. 
During  a  conversation  late  in  September,  he  struck 


276       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

me  as  being  entirely  helpless  and  planless,  but  he  was 
governed  so  strongly  by  personal  vanity  that  he  could 
not  voluntarily  surrender  his  position.  He  spoke 
excitedly,  saying,  "I  have  saved  Russia.  At  least  I 
have  saved  her  from  the  worse  things  that  would  have 
happened  had  I  not  taken  power  in  July."  He 
admitted  that  the  Revolution  was  in  a  state  of  decline. 
The  enthusiasm  for  Revolution  as  a  means  of  saving 
the  country  and  disseminating  ultra-democratic  doc- 
trines in  the  world  generally  had  decayed.  "The  mass 
of  our  people,"  he  said,  "now  regard  the  Revolution 
as  a  passing  stage  just  as  they  formerly  regarded  the 
Autocracy;  and  they  want  to  know  when  the  Revolu- 
tion will  be  wound  up  and  a  stable  form  of  Govern- 
ment set  in  its  place."  This  statement  implied  that 
the  Revolution  had  now  fully  run  its  course  towards 
the  Left;  and  that  Kerensky  did  not  expect  Bol- 
shevism to  enter  on  power;  and  I  believe  that,  in  fact, 
he  did  not  believe  in  a  successful  Bolshevik  revolt, 
and  expected  that  his  own  fall  would  result  from  a 
fresh  assault  from  the  Right.  Without  knowing  the 
quarter  from  which  the  next  trouble  was  to  come,  he 
nevertheless  predicted  a  fresh  convulsion;  and  the 
prophecy  came  true  in  November  when  the  Petrograd 
garrison,  backed  by  detachments  from  Kronstadt, 
expelled  him  almost  without  a  struggle,  and  set  Lenine 
and  Trotsky  in  his  place. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA 

A  FAIR  judgment  upon  revolutionary  Russia  will 
inevitably  be  a  long-time  judgment,  that  takes  into 
account  past  history,  and  as  regards  the  future  treats 
time  generously.  Framed  only  on  the  facts  of  to-day 
and  the  expected  developments  of  to-morrow,  an 
analysis  is  likely  to  be  unreliable.  It  is  likely  to  be 
unduly  black.  But  a  judgment  which  is  come  to  on 
the  basis  of  Russia's  past,  and  which  does  not  expect 
too  much  in  too  short  a  time,  is  likely  to  be  correct, 
and  further  to  be  reasonably  hopeful. 

Russia's  present  condition  is  very  bad.  She  is 
attacked  by  a  dozen  political  and  social  diseases,  any 
one  of  which  might  destroy  a  really  prosperous  and 
advanced  country.  By  the  Peace  of  B rest-Li tovsk 
she  has  lost  her  most  civilized  provinces,  the  only 
provinces  to  any  extent  European.  She  has  lost  a 
great  part  of  her  natural  resources,  and  a  still  greater 
part  of  her  industries.  Her  best  farmers  inhabit  the 
new  semi-independent  states  at  present  under  Austro- 
German  control.  She  cannot  within  measurable  time 
put  her  finances  in  order,  because  she  cannot  ac- 

277 


278       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

cumulate  the  vast  resource  of  gold  necessary  for 
restoring  her  paper  money  to  a  gold  basis.  She  is 
without  manufactured  goods;  and  cannot  get  them 
from  abroad.  The  Allies  cannot  supply  her;  and  her 
former  provider-in-chief,  Germany,  will  for  years  be 
engaged  repairing  the  waste  at  home. 

Her  agricultural  production  has  fallen  off  enor- 
mously; her  model  estates  are  ruined;  and  such 
primitive  agricultural  organizations  as  she  possessed 
before  the  War  are  disintegrated  and  leaderless.  Her 
peasants  are  without  farm  machinery.  Paid  for  their 
products  in  worthless  paper,  in  exchange  for  which 
they  can  buy  nothing,  they  have  lost  the  incentive  to 
produce  more  food  than  they  can  themselves  consume ; 
in  most  districts  they  are  producing  less;  and  these 
districts,  and  all  the  towns  that  depend  upon  them, 
are  facing  famines  worse  than  those  experienced 
under  the  Autocracy. 

In  administration  one  sees  neither  processes  nor 
personalities  through  which  recovery  could  come.  The 
present  dominant  Bolsheviks  are  in  the  main  honest 
extremists ;  but  they  are  without  political  ability ;  and, 
perhaps  with  the  exception  of  Lenine,  are  not  even 
able  men  of  theory.  They  have  no  army  and  no 
police.  In  this  they  resemble  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ments of  Prince  Lvoff  and  Kerensky,  who  were  never, 
even  for  a  day,  in  a  position  to  point  to  a  battalion 
of  troops,  and  say  with  confidence,  "These  men  will 
do  as  they  are  told."  Threatened  both  by  anti- 
Bolshevik  Russians  in  the  outlying  provinces  and  by 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  279 

German  encroachment  from  the  West,  the  Govern- 
ment of  People's  Commissaries  made  an  attempt  to 
reorganize  and  increase  its  Red  Guard  army,  and 
make  it  a  real  army  in  discipline  and  technical 
efficiency,  but  this  attempt  failed ;  and  all  through  the 
spring  the  German  encroachments  continued;  and  the 
opposition  by  Mensheviks,  Social-Revolutionaries, 
bourgeoisie  and  Czecho-Slovaks  increased.  Long 
before  the  Allies  intervened  in  the  White  Sea  and  at 
Vladivostok,  the  Revolution  has  steadily  marched 
towards  disintegration.  Already,  at  the  time  of  the 
Korniloff  revolt,  the  confusion  of  platforms,  parties 
and  prominent  personalities  was  so  great  that 
judicious  persons  welcomed  the  prospect  of  Civil 
War,  arguing  that  it  would  be  preferable  to  have 
irreconcilable  antagonism  between  two  groups — the 
conquering  party  could  enforce  its  will  upon  the  con- 
quered, and  rule  by  force  until  a  permanent  Constitu- 
tion, and  mechanism  for  the  peaceful  settlements  of 
differences,  were  provided  by  the  Constituent 
Assembly. 

No  such  clarification  of  principles  has  been  achieved. 
On  the  contrary,  confusion  is  worse  confounded.  Tlie 
Bolsheviks  are  no  longer  the  homogeneous  party  they 
were;  they  are  threatened  by  a  party  of  Anarchists 
which  proclaims  that  certain  compromises  made  by 
Bolshevism  with  actuality  are  retrograde  and  counter- 
revolutionary ;  and  the  foreign  invasions  in  the  North 
and  in  the  Far  East  must,  unless  they  entirely  over- 
throw the  Moscow  Government  and  establish  a  Gov- 


280       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

eminent  in  its  place,  act  merely  as  irritants.  Were 
she  healthy  at  home,  Russia  might  rapidly  recover 
from  these  frontier  troubles;  and  had  she  no  frontier 
troubles  she  might  conceivably  recover  health  at  home. 
As  it  is,  she  resembles  a  man  who  as  remedy  for 
internal  ailments  has  been  ordered  to  lie  for  a  time 
motionless,  but  who  cannot  lie  motionless  because  of 
tormenting  external  sores. 

Yet  Russia's  fate  should  not  be  despaired  of.  All 
countries  of  Europe  and  America  have  passed  through 
similar  stages  of  decay  and  disorganization;  and 
though  a  few  have  succumbed,  the  younger  and 
healthier  have  recovered.  Poland  fell  from  precisely 
the  same  combination  of  foreign  war  and  domestic 
dissension;  but  Russia  triumphantly  survived  her 
smutnoe  vrcmya — her  "time  of  troubles"  before  the 
elevation  of  the  Romanoffs.  The  Russians  are  a 
young  people.  They  have  not  yet  lived  through  an 
era  combining  foreign  expansion  with  great  wealth, 
industrialization,  physical  degeneration  and  fall  of 
birth-rate.  They  are  young  in  the  sense  that  they 
have  never  been  mature.  Such  races,  it  is  commonly, 
and  probably  with  reason,  believed,  do  not  perish  from 
the  ills  which  beset  Russia  to-day. 

Russia's  foreign  defeat  by  no  means  involves  her 
dissolution  as  a  great  Empire.  Even  if  the  provinces 
lopped  off  by  the  treaty  with  Austria  and  Germany, 
and  lost  through  the  declarations  of  independence  of 
the  Ukraine  and  Finland,  are  never  recovered,  the 
country's  power  of  self-reconstruction  will  not  be 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  281 

lost.  Not  one  of  these  provinces  is  Russian  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word.  The  Ukraine  indeed  is  Rus- 
sian in  so  far  as  the  dialect  spoken  differs  no  more 
from  Great-Russian  than  the  dialect  of  Lancashire  in 
England  differs  from  the  dialect  of  London;  and  the 
Ukrainians,  like  the  Great-Russians,  belong  to  the 
Greek-Orthodox  Church.  Had  it  not  been  for  opres- 
sion  by  the  Romanoffs,  the  Ukraine  would  have  had 
no  more  reason  for  seceding  from  Great-Russia  than 
Lancashire  has  for  seceding  from  England.  But  the 
suppression  of  the  dialect  and  of  local  self-govern- 
ment created  in  the  Ukrainians  a  separatist  feeling 
which  under  free  rule  and  equality  of  languages  would 
never  have  arisen.  The  other  lost  populations  are 
not  Russian  in  any  sense  of  the  word.  Some,  like 
the  Ests,  the  Finns  and  the  Germans  of  the  Baltic 
Provinces,  are  not  even  Slavs  by  race.  Nearly  all  are 
Lutherans  or  Catholics ;  and  all  are  considerably  more 
advanced,  and  have  always  looked  upon  the  Great- 
Russians  as  barbarous  conquerors.  Russia  never 
successfully  administered  these  provinces  and  she 
never  could. 

But  the  real  Russia  remains.  In  Europe  and  in 
Siberia  is  a  territorially  continuous  Great-Russian 
population,  speaking  the  same  tongue,  professing  the 
same  religion,  with  identically  the  same  customs, 
traditions  and  ideology.  This  is  by  far  the  largest 
area  in  the  world  occupied  by  a  homogeneous  people; 
and  even  under  present  economical  conditions  it  has 
room  for  a  population  twice  or  three  times  as  great. 


282       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

This  Russia  remains.  It  is  free  from  separatist 
tendencies,  with  which  the  present  anti-Bolshevik 
frontier  revolts  should  not  be  confused.  True,  before 
the  Revolution  Siberia  had  a  colonial  Home  Rule 
movement,  but  Siberia  could  not  flourish  economically 
in  independence.  It  would  probably  not  weaken 
Russia  to  lose  also  the  Caucasus  and  the  Central  Asian 
Khanates,  where  the  mass  of  the  population,  non- 
Russian  in  race  and  religion,  by  no  means  regards 
itself  as  inferior  in  civilization  to  the  Russians. 
Through  this  Russia  would  become  an  entirely 
homogeneous  national  state  without  race  or  religious 
rivalries;  and  she  would  have  opportunities  for 
development  and  power  much  greater  than  she 
possessed  under  the  Autocracy  or  during  the  first  stage 
of  the  Revolution,  when  national  development  was 
checked  and  hampered  by  the  complexities  of  national 
questions.  Internationally,  therefore,  the  War  has 
not  ruined  Russia.  It  has  left  the  real  Russia.  The 
constructive  men  of  the  future  will  find  their  task 
much  simplified  by  the  elimination  of  the  sorest 
national  problems;  and  for  Russia's  own  sake  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  Peace  reconstruction  while 
guaranteeing  the  newly  detached  populations  of  pre- 
War  Russia  against  absorption  by  Germany  will  not 
force  them  back  into  a  union  which  none  of  them 
desire. 

The  settlement  of  this  problem,  and  therefore  the 
restoration  of  Russia  are  bound  largely  to  be  the 
work  of  the  United  States,  even  if  the  present  direct 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA 


American  intervention  does  not  extend  into  the 
interior.  It  is  therefore  important  to  know  the  real 
Russian  attitude  to  America;  how  America  is 
regarded  as  compared  with  other  Ally  Powers;  what 
Russians  expected  from  America  in  the  first  hopeful 
days  of  Revolution;  and  how  they  met  the  American 
help  initiatives  in  the  summer  of  1917.  At  present 
even  among  the  best-informed  Americans,  and  even 
among  Americans  who  visited  Russia  as  members  of 
the  different  missions  great  misconception  reigns. 
The  initial  mistake  made  last  year  was  in  expecting 
too  much  from  these  missions.  Nine  out  of  ten  Rus- 
sians took  no  interest  in  foreign  relations;  and  could 
not  be  influenced  by  what  Americans  said  or  did. 
Yet  Russian  feeling,  as  far  as  there  was  any,  was 
favorable.  Those  men  who  were  at  all  susceptible  to 
foreign  influences  looked  towards  America  with  trust 
as  the  one  Power  which  at  no  time  in  the  War  had 
been  moved  by  Imperialist  designs.  While  the 
Bolsheviks,  supported  by  many  moderate  Russians, 
were  sharply  distrustful  of  the  European  Allies,  only 
the  greatest  extremists  dared  accuse  America  of 
pursuing  selfish  aims.  And  even  their  accusations 
were  vague,  and  aimed  less  at  the  foreign  policy  of 
Washington  than  at  the  alleged  Capitalistic  designs 
of  certain  American  interests. 

When  the  European  Allies  were  despairing  of 
Russia,  the  arrival  of  the  Root  Mission,  the  Stevens 
Railroad  Commission  and  the  Red  Cross  Mission  of 
Surgeon  Billings  were  taken  as  proof  in  all  except 


284       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


Bolshevik  circles  that  America  remained  true  to  the 
imperiled  new  Democracy.  None  of  these  missions 
had  a  complete  success.  The  Root  Mission  had  no 
effect  whatever  upon  Russian  democratic  opinion; 
and  it  had  a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  Allies'  calcula- 
tions by  its  unintentional  misstatement  that  Russia 
was  determined  and  able  to  continue  the  War.  The 
Stevens  Commission  produced  an  admirable  scheme 
of  railroad  reforms;  and  it  initiated  port  works  at 
Vladivostok,  the  war  value  of  which  would  have  been 
great  if  the  Bolshevik  Revolution  of  November  had 
not  brought  a  separate  peace.  The  Red  Cross  Mission 
before  it  was  ready  to  render  very  much  help  to  the 
fighting  Russians  found  that  the  Russians  were  not 
fighting  at  all. 

The  Root  Mission  was  the  worst  failure.  It  failed 
because  it  was  diverted,  from  the  reasonable  program 
of  expressing  sympathy  with  and  offering  help  to 
Russia  in  her  difficult  position  into  the  impracticable 
path  of  trying  to  influence  Russia  to  fight.  The 
collapse  of  Russia  as  a  belligerent  and  the  unwilling- 
ness of  the  Bolshevik-incited  soldiery  to  fight  further 
were  plain  weeks  before  Mr.  Root  arrived;  and  this 
being  so  the  Korniloff  rally  in  Galicia  in  early  July 
was  a  misfortune,  for  while  it  had  less  than  no 
permanent  military  effects,  it  misled  the  Mission  as 
to  the  spirit  of  Russia's  army.  This  spirit  and  the 
spirit  of  the  anti-War  proletariat  could  not  be  changed 
by  foreign  propaganda.  Russians  were  no  more 
willing  to  be  advised  and  lectured  by  an  authoritative 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  285 

American  than  America,  had  she  been  suffering  from 
similar  misfortunes,  would  have  been  if  prominent 
Russians  had  appeared  in  New  York.  The  Mission 
did  not  arouse  anything  like  the  interest  which  might 
be  deduced  from  reading  American  newspapers. 
Towards  the  personalities  of  the  members,  Russians 
were  either  antagonistic  or  apathetic.  During  the 
weeks  of  Mr.  Root's  stay  in  Petrograd  and  Moscow, 
the  whole  non-Socialist  Press  contained  only  a  single 
leading  article  about  his  work.  The  Mission's  meet- 
ings and  speeches  were  chronicled  briefly  in  obscure 
corners.  The  Bolshevik  newspapers,  led  by  the 
Pravda  and  the  organ  of  Gorky,  carried  on  a  fierce 
anti-Root  campaign.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Root's 
appointment,  the  New  York  Bolsheviks  had  denounced 
him  as  capitalistically  minded  and  therefore  unfit  to 
send  to  democratic  and  Socialistic  Russia;  and  this 
propaganda  had  reached  across  the  Atlantic.  And, 
in  fact,  Mr.  Root  was  not  by  temperament  the  right 
envoy  to  send  to  a  people  in  whom  demonstrativeness 
and  rhetoric  count  for  more  than  reason.  The  special 
representatives  of  democratic  America  had  a  bad 
hearing.  The  Bolshevik  newspapers  denounced  them 
as  "sham  Socialists  of  the  kind  which  in  France, 
England  and  Germany  make  shameful  contracts  with 
capitalism."  Owing  to  lack  of  knowledge  of  Russia 
and  of  its  language,  and  an  almost  equal  lack  of 
familiarity  with  the  other  European  languages  which 
are  well  understood  by  Russians,  the  members  were 
never  in  real  contact  with  the  Government  and  peo- 


286       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

pie;  and  from  the  first  were  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
forces  and  personalities  which  were  misshaping  Russia. 
The  Mission  was  honest,  but  it  was  hopelessly 
blind.  The  members  seemed  unable  to  understand 
the  most  obvious  facts  of  Russian  conditions,  so  much 
so  that  from  the  standpoint  of  informing  America, 
they  would  much  better  have  remained  at  home  and 
employed  competent  translators  to  give  them  the 
contents  of  Russian  newspapers.  In  June  I  was 
present  at  a  meeting  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of 
Deputies,  at  which  a  democratic  member  of  the  Mis- 
sion made  an  address.  Everything  was  done  through 
the  medium  of  translators.  Everything  was  of  course 
done  correctly  and  politely.  A  member  of  the  Council 
of  Deputies  made  a  sharp  criticism  of  the  Allies,  and 
rudely  told  an  American  speaker  that  he  did  not  know 
what  he  was  talking  about,  and  that  America  ought 
to  mend  her  own  affairs  before  advising  Russia.  This 
reply  typified  the  attitude  of  many  members  of  the 
Council.  The  interpreter  omitted  half  of  this,  and 
toned  the  other  half  down,  emphasizing  the  compli- 
ments which  the  Bolshevik  orators  used  as  sugar  in 
their  pills.  The  representative  of  American  democracy 
went  away  under  the  impression  that  he  and  America 
had  been  paid  pleasant  compliments;  and  that  the 
Council  was  solid  with  him.  Under  such  conditions, 
the  whole  mission  was  bound  to  prove  worthless.  But 
this  does  not  obscure  the  fact  that  Russia  trusted  the 
United  States  long  after  she  had  formally  proclaimed 
distrust  of  her  European  Allies. 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  287 

The  Stevens  Railroad  Commission  began  with  much 
more  promise.  It  was  hailed  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
Ministry  of  Communications,  by  the  Army  and  even 
by  some  of  the  extremist  Socialists,  who  knew  that 
nothing  but  railroad  reorganization  would  combat  the 
hunger  and  general  economical  anarchy  which  were 
ruining  the  Revolution.  The  Railroad  Commission, 
like  the  diplomatic  Mission,  was  to  some  extent 
hampered  by  the  exigencies  of  official  courtesy.  Mr. 
Stevens  was  obliged  to  praise  the  conditions  of  the 
totally  ruined  roads,  and  even  to  express  admiration 
for  the  anarchical  officials  who  struck  work  in  the 
face  of  foreign  threat  and  domestic  starvation,  who 
stole,  wrecked  trains,  entered  into  alliance  with  the 
deserting  soldiers,  and  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution  never  showed  a  spark  of  patriotism.  But 
the  Commission  did  some  practical  work;  and  it 
showed  its  real  beliefs  by  including  in  a  program  of 
reforms  issued  some  weeks  after  its  arrival  a  recom- 
mendation for  the  nomination  of  a  supreme  railroad 
inspector  who  would  have  very  great  power.  The 
Commission  started  upon  the  improvement  of 
Vladivostok,  through  which  went  most  war  and 
civilian  supplies  from  the  United  States.  Plans  were 
prepared  for  two  piers  for  ships  drawing  45  feet  of 
water;  and  the  piers  were  immediately  begun,  and 
had  it  not  been  for  disorder,  would  have  been  finished 
within  three  months.  Russia  had  already  given  orders 
for  large  quantities  of  American  rails  and  rolling 
stock,  and  during  the  Commission's  stay  further 


288       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

orders  were  given.  In  July  the  provisional  Minister 
of  Trade  assured  me  that  the  new  orders  would 
amount  to  $375,000,000. 

The  Stevens  Commission  was  hampered  by  the 
incapacity  and  idleness  of  the  Minister  of  Communica- 
tion Nekrasoff,  one  of  the  evil  geniuses  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Nekrasoff  was  an  engineer,  and  a  member  of 
the  Constitutional-Democratic  party,  who  had  some 
skill  in  wire-pulling.  These  were  his  sole  qualifica- 
tions to  become  a  minister,  yet  he  not  only  became 
minister  but  became  the  most  influential  man  in  Russia 
during  several  months  of  the  summer  of  1917.  He 
is  a  big,  fat,  rosy-cheeked  man,  with  a  girl's  voice. 
He  did  not  know  his  work,  and  his  unreliability  was 
a  scandal.  When  Kerensky  became  Prime  Minister, 
Nekrasoff  was  his  chief  assistant.  He  acted  as  barrier 
between  Kerensky  and  the  outside  world,  flattering 
Kerensky's  inordinate  vanity;  and  himself  idling  and 
intriguing  while  showing  gross  incapacity  when  faced 
with  the  simplest  problem.  His  unfitness  was  so 
notorious  that  the  most  obscure  reporters  in  the  Win- 
ter Palace  press  room  treated  him  with  disrespect. 
Yet  when  Kerensky  went  to  the  front,  Nekrasoff  acted 
as  his  deputy,  and  was  in  theory  unchallenged  ruler 
of  the  former  empire  of  the  Romanoffs. 

During  the  summer  of  1917,  the  idea  of  economic 
co-operation  with  the  United  States  was  in  great 
popularity  among  the  educated  classes.  The  Bol- 
sheviks naturally  regarded  such  co-operation  as  a  new 
phase  of  Capitalism,  and  they  denounced  it  vigorously. 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  289 

The  leader  in  all  co-operation  plans  was  the  Assistant 
Minister  of  Trade,  M.  Paltchinsky,  one  of  the  remark- 
able figures  of  the  Revolution.  In  the  Revolution 
of  1905,  Paltchinsky,  then  a  young  Siberian  engineer, 
organized  the  so-called  "Krasnoyarsk  Republic." 
When  the  "Republic"  perished,  he  was  obliged  to  flee 
abroad;  and  in  his  absence  he  was  condemned.  He 
returned  home  under  an  amnesty.  He  founded  and 
managed  factories  in  the  Caucasus  and  in  European 
Russia.  Primed  with  enthusiasm,  and  thoroughly 
equipped  with  foreign  technical  knowledge,  he  started 
a  new  movement  for  developing  on  a  great  scale  the 
nation's  tremendous  resources.  He  gathered  round 
himself  other  brilliant  engineers  and  mining  experts; 
started  at  his  own  expense  the  monthly  journal  On 
the  Surface  and  Under;  and  began  to  press  upon  the 
pre-revolutionary  government  the  need  for  economical 
reforms.  The  pre-revolutionary  government  pro- 
fessed to  ignore  him,  but  it  borrowed  many  of  his 
plans,  and  some  of  these  plans  were  being  carried  out 
when  the  Revolution  occurred.  Paltchinsky  was  then 
nominated  Assistant  Minister  of  Trade,  and  he  took 
the  lead  in  a  Special  Commission  which  was  to  devise 
means  for  developing  resources.  He  denounced  the 
system  of  piece-meal  exploitation  of  mineral  wealth 
practised  so  far;  and  urged  with  great  energy  that 
a  single  vast  plan  should  be  framed  for  developing 
the  Empire's  scattered  resources,  and  for  inviting  the 
necessary  foreign  capital  and  technical  skill.  He 


290       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

proposed  to  turn  over  a  great  part  of  the  resources 
to  be  developed  by  the  United  States. 

Early  in  July,  the  Commission  rendered  a  report 
recommending  the  adoption  of  his  plan.  Americans 
were  to  be  entrusted  with  the  exploitation  of  the 
mineral  wealth  of  Eastern  Siberia,  of  the  Altai  moun- 
tains, which  are  rich  in  gold,  silver  and  platinum,  of 
the  Kirgiz  steppe  in  which  there  are  vast  quantities 
of  copper,  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  which  have  an 
abundance  of  nearly  every  precious  metal  and  precious 
stone ;  and  finally  of  the  northern  half  of  the  Island 
of  Saghalien.  The  Commission  was  particularly 
anxious  that  northern  Saghalien  should  be  entrusted 
to  Americans,  holding  that  this  was  the  only  way 
of  preventing  its  falling  under  the  commercial  domina- 
tion of  Japan,  which  gained  the  southern  half  of  the 
Island  by  the  Peace  of  Portsmouth. 

On  this  subject  I  had  prolonged  interviews  with 
Paltchinsky.  He  told  me  that  he  was  already  negotia- 
ting with  American  capitalists  and  mining  experts; 
and  he  expressed  radiant  hopes  of  the  result.  These 
hopes  were  not  realized.  The  extreme  Socialist  Press, 
knowing  that  he  was  a  rich  man  and  a  director  of 
industries,  began  to  attack  his  plan  as  a  new  device 
of  Capitalism,  and  demanded  his  dismissal.  The  plan, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  promising  economical 
initiatives  of  the  Revolution,  fell  to  the  ground. 
Paltchinsky  came  up  again  during  the  stirring  days 
of  KornilofFs  revolt,  when  though  a  civilian,  he  was 
made  SavinofFs  assistant  in  the  command  of  the 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  291 

Petrograd  Military  District.  Here  he  showed 
extraordinary  energy  and  ability;  but  he  was  again 
attacked  by  the  Socialists,  and  abandoned  by  the  weak 
and  vainglorious  Kerensky  with  whom  no  man  of  real 
ability  could  long  work.  He  remained  to  the  end 
a  sturdy  advocate  of  union  with  America  with  the 
aim  of  Russia's  industrial  and  commercial  salvation; 
and  when  I  saw  him  again  in  September,  just  before 
his  resignation,  he  assured  me  that  he  would  persist 
in  his  plan.  "Russia,"  he  said,  "will  survive  her 
Revolution;  and  the  time  will  come  when  we  shall 
revive  our  constructive  plans.  Then  America  must 
help  us.  The  War  will  ruin  Europe ;  and  when  peace 
comes  America  will  be  the  only  country  with  a  reserve 
of  capital  and  skilled  men.  To  America  we  must 
then  turn." 

The  Paltchinsky  plan  is  only  one  manifestati»n 
witnessed  by  me  of  the  general  desire  for  assistance 
from  the  United  States.  Leaders  of  Zemstvos,  co- 
operative unions  and  merchants'  guilds  constantly 
spoke  of  the  need  of  Russo- American  co-operation, 
the  motive  for  co-operation  with  America  instead  of 
with  European  countries  being  partly  distrust  of 
Europe  born  of  ancient  jealousies  not  yet  extinct,  and 
partly  the  conviction  that  Europe  will  be  hopelessly 
exhausted  at  the  end  of  the  War.  Even  persons 
whose  plans  for  regeneration  had  no  connection  with 
politics  or  economy  were  inclined  to  turn  towards 
America.  Among  these  was  Maxim  Gorky,  who  had 
been  unfriendly  to  everything  American  since  his 


292       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 

unpleasant  New  York  experience  of  1906  when  he 
was  expelled  from  hotels  for  presenting  the  actress 
Andreyeff  as  his  wife.  Gorky  then  lampooned  New 
York  as  "The  City  of  the  Yellow  Devil";  and  his 
grandiose  scheme  of  modernizing  it  by  means  of 
friendship  was  distrustful  and  even  boorish.  Yet  he, 
too,  turned  towards  America.  Convinced  that  Russia 
could  not  find  salvation  in  politics,  he  conceived  the 
grandiose  scheme  of  modernising  it  by  means  of 
applied  Science,  or  as  he  expressed  it  to  me  in  July 
"Americanizing  the  whole  country."  He  jumped  to 
the  conclusion  that  applied  Science  and  advanced 
technology  are  the  real  causes  of  American  political 
and  social  stability ;  and  in  order  to  apply  this  doctrine 
to  Russia  he  and  his  friends  founded  a  Free  Associa- 
tion for  the  Development  and  Dissemination  of  the 
Positive  Sciences.  He  \vas  very  eager  to  advertise 
this  scheme  in  the  United  States;  expected  Americans 
to  supply  the  necessary  funds;  and  planned  to  invite 
to  Russia  American  experts  on  hygiene,  medicine, 
house-construction,  and  other  practical  arts.  The 
scheme  came  to  nothing,  the  cause  of  failure  being 
Gorky's  instability  which  led  him  back  into  politics 
with  no  good  result.  But  many  prominent  Russians 
were  interested;  American  practical  methods  were 
contrasted  in  the  Press  with  native  political  theorising; 
and  the  popular  belief  was  encouraged  that  America 
is  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  wealth  and  energy,  and 
that  it  is  to  America  Russia  must  turn  when  she 


RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA 


seriously  seeks  foreign  assistance  out  of  her  present 
impasse. 

Of  American  armed  intervention  there  was  then 
no  talk  Privately  many  were  already  expressing  the 
hope  that  Germany  would  occupy  Petrograd,  crush 
the  Soviets  and  restore  order.  But  these  were  mainly 
men  who  foresaw  the  abolition  of  Property,  and  knew 
that  a  German-controlled  Russia  would  put  a  stop  to 
extreme  Socialist  legislation.  In  fact,  Germany  had 
at  no  time  the  military  power  for  such  a  measure, 
which  must  have  been  followed  by  the  occupation  of 
all  of  European  Russia  if  it  were  to  have  any  effect. 
Order  in  Russia  if  it  is  not  to  be  re-established  by 
Russians — which  means,  left  to  be  brought  about  by 
exhaustion — can  only  be  restored  with  certainty  by 
general  military  penetration,  followed  by  re-organiza- 
tion, with  the  reconstruction  of  officialdom,  the 
restoration  of  the  police,  and  widespread  financial, 
industrial  and  commercial  reforms.  The  Autocracy 
in  peace  time  needed  a  million  and  a  half  soldiers 
to  maintain  a  very  precarious  order;  and  to  restore 
order  by  compulsion  to-day  would  require  a  force  at 
least  as  large.  That  is  the  obstacle  facing  America 
and  her  Allies.  The  present  weak  assistance  given  to 
the  anti-Bolshevik  parties  may  easily  ensure  the  over- 
throwal  of  the  already  shaken  Government  of  Sovi  ts ; 
but  this  is  not  enough.  The  experience  of  Lvoff  and 
Kerensky  in  1917  shows  that  a  non-Bolshevik  Gov- 
ernment of  the  capital  is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to 
maintain  local  order  or  to  enforce  plans  of  reconstruc- 


294       RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  ASPECTS 


tion  without  which  Russia  cannot  flourish.  A 
bourgeois,  Menshevik,  Social-Revolutionary,  or  coali- 
tion Government  set  up  in  Petrograd  or  Moscow  after 
the  fall  of  the  Bolsheviks  will  not  have  authority 
throughout  the  country  unless  it  is  buttressed  upon 
the  "strong  government  power"  which  the  first  Provi- 
sional Governments  and  the  Bolsheviks  alike  planned, 
but  alike  failed  to  create.  The  popular  notion  in 
America  that  once  the  Bolshevik  despotism  is  over- 
thrown, the  Russian  majority  will  voluntarily  unite, 
keep  order  and  bear  burdens,  is  not  supported  by  the 
experience  of  1917.  The  ultimate  problem  therefore 
before  America  and  the  Allies  will  not  be:  what  Gov- 
ernment Russia  chooses,  but  how  that  Government 
is  to  be  kept  afloat. 

Means  may  yet  be  found  for  a  more  active 
American  policy  in  Russia  that  will  not  arouse  the 
suspicion  of  the  Russian  people.  A  sound  policy 
would  exploit  the  confidence  in  the  United  States  that 
is  generally  felt,  except  by  the  Bolsheviks,  rather  than 
give  material  for  strengthening  the  Bolshevik  anti- 
American  propaganda.  Russian  trust  in  America  is 
a  great  asset  that  should  not  be  carelessly  squandered 
through  any  impatience  to  accelerate  the  process  of 
recovery  which  is  in  any  case  inevitable;  and  which 
is  likely  to  be  accompanied  by  far  closer  and  more 
satisfactory  Russo-American  relations  than  have 
existed  in  the  past. 


THE  END. 


OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


„ 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  a/e^tibject  to  immediate  recall. 


3  o'G3 


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NTER-LIBRARY 


LOAN 


1  1967 


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